23. Juni 2026, 11:00 – 11:45 Uhr

Pressure Cooker University: Creating Futures Under Pressure

Higher education institutions are under constant pressure: global polycrises, technological change, and strained finances shape their daily reality. Much energy is devoted to stabilization and crisis management. The key question of this session is: How can institutions move beyond reacting and take a proactive role in shaping the future? How can bold, desirable visions—providing direction and guiding decisions—emerge under pressure?
The panel, invited by the Vision Track of Stifterverband's Future Mission for Education (Zukunftsmission Bildung), uses the “pressure cooker” as its guiding metaphor. We explore the “heat source” from politics, funding, and governance, the role of leadership and organization, and when pressure blocks progress or enables sustainable development to “cook.” The international panel discusses how strategic foresight and conscious futuring can translate pressure into ambitious visions and concrete steps for higher education.

Literatur: BLB NRW & ScMI AG. (2024). Zukünftige Hochschulwelten: Szenarien und Perspektiven. https://www.scmi.de/images/downloads/dateien/scmi-blb-zukuenftige-hochschulwelten-pdf.pdf Heck, J., & Luebkeman, C. (2023, September). Exploring global drivers of change for higher education institutions [Conference paper]. Taking Care of Our Future: Foresight and Innovation for a Sustainable World Conference, Linz, Austria. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2025). Building anticipatory capacity with strategic foresight in government: Lessons from Lithuania, Italy and Malta (OECD Public Governance Reviews). OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/building-anticipatory-capacity-with-strategic-foresight-in-government_d7eb0bb6-en/full-report.html Scheurwater, G. J. L., & Meijer, L. G. E. (2025). Navigating complexity: TU Delft strategic foresight approach for higher education institutions. TU Delft Research Repository. Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. (2024, August). Neue Formen der tertiären Bildung: Innovative Zukunftskonzepte für Hochschulbildung und was wir von ihnen lernen können. https://www.stifterverband.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/neue_formen_der_tertiaeren_bildung_explorationsstudie.pdf SURF. (n.d.). Future Campus. https://www.surf.nl/en/themes/future-campus

Beitragende: Hannah Strunk, Stifterverband

Speaker:innen
Track

The bigger picture

Raum

Landing:Stage Berlin

Sprache

DE

Format

Diskussion

Sondercluster

Global Perspectives