Rector's letter Special words on a special day

Dear members of Ruhr-Universität Bochum,

Today is a very special day for me, because it is the first day of my term of office as the new Rector of Ruhr-Universität Bochum. It’s an honour to reach out to you today on behalf of the entire Rectorate!

In the months since my election, I have come to know and appreciate many people at our university and in Bochum. I’ve moved into a small flat, a few minutes’ walk away from the Unicenter. I’ve almost got used to seeing so much concrete everywhere. And I experienced first-hand how enthusiastic and welcoming the local people can be when I went to see a VfL Bochum home match. This creates a good feeling when you are new to a city.

The Bochum spirit had already impressed me when I visited the city as a member of the review committee for the Excellence Strategy.

Lots of concrete, short distances and friendly people – I found all of this on campus as well. Everyone I’ve had the pleasure to meet so far, no matter whether they were students, lecturers, researchers, or technical and administrative staff, has been more than ready to build bridges for me into the community of this unique university, to which I now also belong. Thank you for this!

The Bochum spirit had already impressed me when I visited the city as a member of the review committee for the Excellence Strategy. Bochum is seen by many as an exciting, unconventional university. “Bochum is different,” Kurt Biedenkopf once said in retrospect about his time as Rector here. I, too, believe that Bochum is a university with a unique profile – let me tell you what I find remarkable about it:

What struck me in particular was that, thanks to the unique circumstances of its birth in the dynamic melting pot of the Ruhr region, RUB has produced one of the most diverse and integrative university cultures I have ever come across – even in the international arena. The diversity of people and disciplines is overwhelming. I am particularly impressed by everyone’s ability to work together and the collective will to be open for change. This applies to the people on campus – but also to partners, institutions and social sectors outside the university. I think this is an excellent foundation for shaping the future.

The people here truly live diversity and participation.

The people here truly live diversity and participation, and they seem to take it so much for granted that RUB has not yet anchored diversity in its governance. However, I believe that we can make even better use of the strengths of our established diversity culture if we promote it even more deliberately and systematically.

I have therefore decided to install a fourth Vice Rectorate in addition to the established Vice Rectorates for Academic Affairs and Education, Research and Transfer as well as Planning, Strategy and Structure: namely Diversity, Inclusion and Talent Development. Thanks to its unique culture, RUB has already laid a solid foundation in this area. But only with a talent strategy based on diversity and inclusion will we be able to achieve the goal of fully transforming RUB into a place of equal opportunities and draw from it our strength for the future. After all, the promotion and networking of diverse talents is not only a question of our social responsibility, but also the secret of our success in education, research and transfer.

At just under 60 years old, RUB is still a young university.

People who not only strive for excellence vertically in their field, but also demonstrate their ability to perform and network horizontally are typical and exemplary for Bochum and the entire Ruhr science hub, which has been significantly shaped by our university in its pioneering role. As a result, these structures not only produce clusters of excellence, but also Nobel Prize winners, emerging from a high-quality research and academic culture across the entire range of disciplines. And this is also why the Ruhr-Universität not only acts as an engine of change for the region, but also receives worldwide recognition for its expertise in holistic social and technical transformation. An expertise that is highly relevant in view of the complex ecological, economic and social challenges of global epochal change. I will personally dedicate myself to this goal and use my international contacts to transform RUB further into a network university of international standing.

At just under 60 years old, RUB is still a young university. It has great potential with its networked diversity, both in the region, for example through the University Alliance Ruhr, and on an international level. If we join forces to become even more of what we already are, we can achieve so much more.

I am looking forward to this together with the newly elected Rectorate, whose members are introduced for the first time to a broader public today in the RUB news portal.

We will have the opportunity to meet at the academic annual celebration.

I’d also like to meet as many of you as possible in person. As a starter, we will have the opportunity to do so at the academic annual celebration on 24 November 2021 in the Audimax, to which you’re all very much invited.

Together with the entire Rectorate, I am also eager to enter into dialogue with you to hear what drives each and every one of you, to learn from your experiences and to discuss what we can jointly achieve.

With very best wishes,

Martin Paul