Professor Thomas Becker has resigned as dean at TUM.
He gives his reasons to the FT.
The successor has already been determined.
Freising
- "For the five of us it was the consistent and joint decision to clear the way for others." With these words, Professor Thomas Becker has resigned as dean of the TUM School of Life Sciences (formerly Weihenstephan Science Center) and that of his four vice deans justified.
His successor has already been determined: Professor Ingrid Kögel-Knabner.
When asked by FT, Becker, Professor of the Chair of Brewing and Beverage Technology, reported that the School Council, the former faculty council, had criticized his leadership style.
Academic staff and students are represented in the committee headed by the dean.
However, according to Becker, the resistance against the dean came from the ranks of the most powerful group in the council: the professors.
He therefore no longer saw sufficient confidence in his work.
“Noticeably suffered”: Becker wants to devote more time to his chair
The brewing professor was active as dean for five years. He believes that the timing of his resignation, which took place on August 15, but has only now become public, is correct. Because: "The search for a successor should be as unencumbered as possible and uninfluenced by me." In any case, he would have made his office available at the end of the cycle. He only took this step earlier. He now wants to devote himself more intensively to his chair for brewing and beverage technology. Because of the time-consuming office of the Dean, he “suffered noticeably”.
When asked by FT, the university commented on the resignation of the professor with exactly one sentence: "TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann thanked the previous dean." The regular search for a new dean is a lengthy, complicated procedure.
The search for applicants begins as early as October.
Every single candidacy goes through all TUM committees and must be accepted by everyone.
The election will take place in spring 2022, and the handover will take place on October 1, 2022.
The successor wants to tackle the task with "verve and courage"
Until then, Ingrid Kögel-Knabner, holder of the Chair of Soil Science, is acting as dean.
With her, an outstanding personality and multiple award-winning scientist of the highest reputation will take over the management of the school, explained the TUM President.
The new head of the school would like to approach her office “with verve and courage”.
"The tasks in the Dean's Office are always complex," said Kögel-Knabner to the FT: "With the establishment of the school that was founded last year, exciting tasks await to further modernize research and teaching in the life sciences." She would now like to have many conversations in order to get to know all interests and to be able to bring them together.
Resigned Vice Dean returns to office
The students consider Kögel-Knabner to be a “very good choice”, as School Council member Lukas Viebahn informed the FT.
“She has experience in the university senate and is valued by the school council.
I am convinced that she will bridge the year well until the new election and initiate positive changes in the meantime. "
Viebahn also emphasized that the resignation of the dean and the vice deans came as a surprise to the students.
“There was criticism;
However, we did not expect this drastic step. ”From the ranks of the student body there was“ hardly any criticism of Becker's management style and communication culture ”.
"We were given regular meetings and any problems that occurred were discussed satisfactorily."
One of the four resigned vice deans has meanwhile returned to office: Professor Harald Luksch has been reinstated - at the express request of the student representatives.
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