Nine years in office leave their mark not only in one document or another, but also in attitude, perspective and the actual changes at TH Lübeck. For Frank Schwartze, a time between the will to create, system logic and the art of combining the two ends.
TH Lübeck: Mr. Schwartze, we’ll start with a little game. One term, spontaneous answer. First term: innovation.
Prof. Frank Schwartze: Very difficult business because innovations cannot be planned.
TH Lübeck: Bureaucracy.
Schwartze: Very important.
TH Lübeck: Lübeck.
Schwartze: A really nice location.
TH Lübeck: Future.
Schwartze: Luckily it wasn’t predictable.
TH Lübeck: If you had to describe your time as Vice President in three words, what would they be?
Schwartze: Joy in creating.
University management: The desire to create
TH Lübeck: What attracted you to go into university management back then?
Schwartze: My discipline, urban planning, deals with how our shared systems, living environments, cities and villages are developed. But it mostly remains abstract, because you often don’t see what the end result is based on your own actions. And that’s probably exactly where my motivation lay: the desire to create and also achieve a concrete effect.
TH Lübeck: Was there a moment when you hesitated about accepting the position?
Schwartze: Oh, I’m not set up like that. I rely on my gut feeling.
TH Lübeck: Looking back, what was your most important project – and why?
Schwartze: In fact, for me this was the implementation of our research and transfer strategy.
Whatever you do at universities, you do it together
TH Lübeck: Where do you recognize that your work has had an impact?
Schwartze: As a rule, it is not individual work that has created an impact, because everything you do at universities is always done together with others. And then, in addition to what has already been mentioned, there is the expansion of our internationalization portfolio – away from individual partnerships with China and the USA, towards broad internationalization at the university.
TH Lübeck: Mr. Schwartze, are city planners the perfect university managers?
Schwartze: It can be. In fact, city planners are very suitable for this because of their skills, because they always have to act as a moderator for the common good and shape paths into the future.
That’s why amateurism has nothing to do with incompetence
TH Lübeck: You once described university teachers in self-administration as dilettantes. Why does this have nothing to do with incompetence for you?
Schwartze: Because by definition it isn’t. The dilettante is actually something very beautiful. Because he or she is voluntarily engaging in a matter in which he or she is not professional. So it’s a person doing something they’ve never learned to do. We university professors are people in our field and can do this particularly well, but that doesn’t make us good university administrators and managers. It just means that you haven’t learned the thing, not that you can’t do it.
TH Lübeck: Many people associate bureaucracy with obstacles rather than with progress. In your opinion, what role does bureaucracy play in everyday university life?
Schwartze: Bureaucracy is very important. It’s actually similar to amateurism, the term is often used incorrectly. Bureaucracy is extremely important to create secure processes and give everyone the freedom of action they need and want. This is what I introduced myself to in my first term of office: the university must function as a structure. The trick is not to declare change, but to implement the change processes into regular processes. But that’s also the great thing about universities: they are a realm of freedom and at the same time integrated into the organization of public action and public administration. It doesn’t always fit together, but it doesn’t work without each other either.
University between freedom and rules
TH Lübeck: What was more frustrating than expected?
Schwartze: Eternal arguments. In order to implement research and transfer as we imagine it, completely different approaches would be necessary in order to live out the freedom associated with it. These in turn are restricted by external limitations, such as laws, collective agreements or EU directives. It is a constant negotiation battle over borders, freedom and culture.
TH Lübeck: Are you looking forward to “just” being a professor again?
Schwartze: Yes, actually. I’m looking forward to this unstructured and free. Not having to manage or coordinate twelve parallel processes. Just check off those endless lists on my computer with all the to-dos.
TH Lübeck: Are there projects that you already have in mind and can now finally implement?
Schwartze: I was actually just cleaning out my home office and realized that there are things that I haven’t followed up on in nine years. And although I have always done a lot of research at the same time, there are things that I now have to get back into. For example, the development of building law. A big topic that I am now devoting myself to together with my team is the possible acceleration of development plans.
TH Lübeck: Would you have been interested in becoming president yourself?
Schwartze: No. I couldn’t have imagined a life without my professional skills.
Head in the cloud, feet on the earth
TH Lübeck: Either/or. City or region?
Schwartze: City.
TH Lübeck: theory or practice?
Schwartze: Practice.
TH Lübeck: Quick decision or long vote?
Schwartze: Quick decision.
TH Lübeck: Vision or feasibility?
Schwartze: Head in the cloud, feet on the earth.
TH Lübeck: If you could send the university into the future with one sentence, what would it be?
Schwartze: The task is not to master the change processes, but rather to prepare for a transformation.