University:Future
Festival
The University:Future Festival (U:FF) is the largest event dedicated to the (digital) future of academic education.
As a leading event on digitization in higher education and teaching, it offers guidance, networking, and inspiration. And it is community-oriented and open to everyone! The festival covers a wide range of topics related to AI, architectures, technology, strategy development, skills, didactics, and much more. It is aimed at everyone involved in the present and future of academic education: university staff and students; researchers and politicians; civil society and artists.
The University:Future Festival is a cooperation between Hochschulforum Digitalisierung, Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre and Stifterverband.
Recap 2025
The fifth edition of the University:Future Festival has taken place from 13-15 May 2025 under the motto /imagine!
This year’s topics included AI, future skills, didactics, and strategy processes. Exciting keynote speakers such as Julia Freudenberg, Christoph Biemann, Lisa Niendorf, Jürgen Geuter, Aya Jaff, Sven Schütt, and the podcast KI-verstehen were represented at U:FF 2025. An overview of all speakers can be found here.
The program of the University:Future Festival 2025 consisted of six thematic tracks:
- Structures & strategies
- The bigger picture
- AI & Technology
- Future Skills
- Innovative Learning
- People
Click here for the programme. For more information about U:FF 2025 and the on-demand programme, please refer to our Recap 2025.
Our English Playlist 2025:
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Highlights
Stronger presence
The festival comprised a main stage in Berlin and four partner stages in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This enabled us to reach a capacity of up to 1,500 people attending at the same time.
Community is at the center
The community has already been involved in the planning of the programme’s content priorities. In addition, various calls are currently underway through which the community can actively help shape the programme.
Broad and flexible programme
The programme was made even more flexible: We offered workshops and micro-training courses on all days and are trialling innovative formats on site and digitally.
The motto: /imagine
The festival motto for 2025 was /imagine. It is an invitation to everyone to think fundamentally, creatively, critically and, above all, for themselves in these politically and socially difficult times.
The motto addresses all levels of university development: /imagine agile and sustainable university structures! /imagine innovative teaching at all universities! /imagine digitally sovereign and modernly equipped institutions! /imagine a smart and sustainable use of AI in university teaching
With a known image AI, /imagine started the command to create a new image. By referencing the command line and artificial intelligence, we also placed current technical issues at the centre of the festival.
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