KU President Gien honored as "University Manager of the Year 2024"

[Translate to Englisch:] Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien
© Christian Klenk

KU President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien is "University Manager of the Year 2024". On behalf of the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) and the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit", a jury of experts selected her from among German university presidents and rectors. As an "outstanding science manager", Gien leads her University "with strategic talent, a keen sense of structures and unwavering optimism", the jury justified its choice. Gabriele Gien was presented with the award at a ceremony in Berlin on Wednesday evening.

Gabriele Gien has already been nominated four times in a row for the title "University Manager of the Year" for her strategic leadership and the successful positioning of the KU in the German higher educational landscape. This shows that the President has managed to "stay on course over the years and repeatedly achieve significant successes", wrote the jury, calling Gien a "hidden champion" among university presidents. Under her leadership, the KU has made significant progress, including becoming a member to the German Research Foundation in 2023. 

The Bavarian Minister of State for Science and the Arts, Markus Blume, congratulated Gien on the award with the words: "President with distinction: Germany's University Manager of the Year 2024 leads the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien on this well-deserved award. She steers the KU from one success to the next in an authentic and team-oriented manner. DFG membership, great successes in acquiring third-party funding, an outstanding staff-to-student ratio and ideal study conditions: President Gien knows what is important at the top of a University. Her commitment to the future of the KU is simply fantastic."

The Magnus Cancellarius of the KU, Cardinal Reinhard Marx also congratulated her on the award: "President Gien has put the KU on a good course and set future-oriented priorities that make the University attractive in view of the signs of our times and the upcoming social challenges. This is also a special task given the fact that she heads the only Catholic University in the German-speaking world with a distinct character that entails its own challenges. However, sharpening its profile as a Catholic University is not only a necessary duty, but also an incentive to shape it. I am very grateful for this and congratulate her on her well-deserved recognition as University Manager of the Year."

University Manager of the Year
© Phil Dera für die ZEIT Award ceremony in Berlin: from left CHE Managing Director Prof. Dr. Frank Ziegele, Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien, laudator Horst Seehofer and ZEIT editor Martin Spiewak

Horst Seehofer, the new Chairman of the KU Foundation Council since the end of October, gave the laudatory speech at the award ceremony in Berlin. He also congratulates Gien on the award: "The development of the KU in recent years is impressive: Excellence in research and DFG membership, outstanding teaching and title as Germany’s most popular university, a special profile through value orientation and personal development. This is all thanks to the President, who, together with her team, has achieved extraordinary things. Gabriele Gien is ace!"

In addition to an understanding of leadership and leadership action, the jury focused on the areas of knowledge transfer and science communication. Through participative processes and transparent communication, at the KU, Gien ensures "that all status groups can participate in the development and implementation of the strategy", according to the jury. Science communication was a central concern of Gabriele Gien, who turned the KU into a University "that promotes exchange with society and makes knowledge accessible". The jury also pointed out the KU's pioneering role in the area of sustainability - the University has set standards here under Gien's leadership.

Gabriele Gien said at the ceremony in Berlin that she sees the prize as an award for a team effort. "Without the collegial and constructive exchange that characterizes our cooperation in the University Management, the groundbreaking development of the KU in recent years would not have been possible in this way." She said, the award therefore goes to the entire KU and all its members: "It is the special spirit that characterizes the work at our University, which allows special research achievements as well as innovative, high-quality teaching to become reality." The KU thrives on the shared idea that, as a small University, it has an original, authentic voice in the higher education landscape. With its unique profile, the KU sees itself "as a University that consciously combines academic freedom, international collaboration and social responsibility".

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien
© Phil Dera für die ZEIT Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien during her acceptance speech

About the award
The "University Manager of the Year" prize, which has been awarded annually since 2008, is presented by the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" and the Center for Higher Education Development in recognition of outstanding leadership achievements in the German higher education sector. The nominees are selected in several stages and in a process lasting several months. A data-based pre-selection process is used to identify universities with particularly strong positive development dynamics. Subsequently, 30 university management teams were asked about their understanding of leadership. The votes of the other members of the Presidium and the Chairpersons of the University Councils are also taken into account. Finally, the jury uses all the data as a basis for selecting the finalists. Together with Gabriele Gien, this year's nominees were Prof. Dr. Tanja Brühl (Technische Universität Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Krahl (Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe), Prof. Dr. Susanne Menzel-Riedl (Universität Osnabrück), Prof. Dr. Dorit Schumann (Hochschule Trier) and Prof. Dr. Ursula M. Staudinger (Technische Universität Dresden).

About Gabriele Gien
Gabriele Gien, born in Munich in 1962, studied German language and literature, art history and education at the LMU. After completing her state examination and her doctorate in German studies, she accepted a position in Freiburg in 2007. In 2009, she was appointed to the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Chair of Didactics of German Language and Literature) and was elected Vice President in the same year. She initially headed the KU on an interim basis from 2014, was elected President in 2016 and unanimously confirmed in office in 2021. Gien is married and has two children.

"Im Namen der Herrin": Portrait written by Raoul Löbbert in the current issue of ZEIT:
https://www.zeit.de/2024/52/hochschulmanagement-gabriele-gien-universitaet-eichstaett-ingolstadt

More information on the award, the nominees and the jury:
www.che.de/2024/wer-wird-hochschulmanagerin-des-jahres-2024
https://www.che.de/2024/gien/