Digital Pact 2020-2024
The state of Hessen and the Hessian universities and colleges see digitization as a creative task. Following on from previous steps toward digitization, in the last two phases of the Higher Education Pact, in addition to individual university measures, cross-university cooperative projects were launched and implemented as part of the state's university development planning. Building on this, the Hessian universities and colleges, the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts, and the Minister for Digital Strategy and Development are therefore making a pact for the digitization of universities, the Hessian Digital Pact for Universities (DPH), in order to strengthen Hessen as a location for science.
They are addressing the challenge of developing universities in an innovative, modern, and efficient way. To this end, they have identified specific challenges in their Strategy for the Digital Infrastructure and Information Management of the Universities of the State of Hessen 2020-2025 in the areas of research, teaching, administration, digital infrastructure, information management, and governance, which they intend to address with this Digital Pact.
The dynamics of digitization make it essential to continuously develop and question the goals and content of the digitization process. In this context, digitization must not be viewed solely from a technical perspective, but must be understood as a profound process of change that will require additional resources on a permanent basis and, not least, is a challenge for management, human resources, and organizational development. Moreover, digitization raises new legal issues, the solutions to which may also require legislative adjustments.
The funds from the Digital Pact are used to support projects that go beyond existing structures and measures and further develop Hessen's universities in their digital transformation. They supplement the financial resources that each university spends on digitization measures and information infrastructure in its ongoing operations. In this pact, the partners agree on goals to ensure a fundamental, holistic digital transformation process and the qualitative improvement of their scientific and administrative processes, as well as appropriate organizational and financial framework conditions secured over the term of the digital pact. In many cases, this will result in long-term additional costs, the financing of which will have to be taken into account in future university funding plans.