The University:Future Festival (U:FF) will take place from 5 to 7 June 2024 in Berlin, in the digital space and at several partner stages. The motto: “Tales of Tomorrow”.

It is planned as a hybrid event: Physical spaces will enable encounters, while the content programme can only be fully experienced through digital participation. The festival is bilingual in German and English. The programme is largely based on submissions from the community. It will be rounded off by outstanding VIP speakers.

The University:Future Festival 2023 was a great success with a total of 5,553 registrations, 3,900 active participants and 300 programme items from almost 600 speakers. We want to build on this in 2024.

Some things are new:

Physical attendance will be enhanced in 2024. We are planning a main stage in Berlin and anticipate four partner stages at other locations. This allows for a cross-site capacity of up to 1,000 attendees simultaneously. However, the event remains digital first!

We are involving the community even more: The content-related focus will once again be set with the input from partners and the community in autumn 2023. The call will be further developed. Additionally, there is a Call for Volunteers for both moderations and jury work.

The programme will become even broader and more flexible: in 2024, the festival will broaden its view and look at all places of academic learning. The programme will become more flexible: we will offer workshops and micro-educations on all days and test innovative formats.

University:Future Festival 2023 is organised by Hochschulforum Digitalisierung and Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre. It is supported by Stifterverband.

Review 2023

The festival was digital first – but there were also multiple physical stages throughout the country. This allowed participants to engage in personal exchanges without long travel distances. Both online and in-person tickets were free of charge. More information about our three on-site locations of the U:FF 2023 can be found here.

Impressions and highlights from the stages can be seen in our gallery.

News

Save the date! Under the motto "Tales of Tomorrow", the fourth University:Future Festival from 05 - 07 June 2024 will once again bring everyone together who is interested in the future of higher education.

Save the date!

In over 300 sessions and workshops, more than 600 speakers and almost 3700 active attendees came together at the University:Future Festival 2023! This was the programme of the festival.

Click here for the programme

To have a look back at the University:Future Festival 2023, you can find the photo gallery of the physical stages here.

Click here for the photos

This were the awesome speakers of University:Future Festival 2023

Click here for the speakers

The motto “Tales of Tomorrow”

Stories are powerful. They construct our reality. The future is not predetermined; instead, we create it through the narratives of today.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines the term “tale” as “a story, especially one that might be invented or difficult to believe”. With this, we express that we are challenging established future narratives at the University:Future Festival. We invite everyone to find new narratives together. We address both current and upcoming technological developments while exploring the social and intellectual-historical context in which they occur.

The motto “Tales of Tomorrow” thus stands for a reflection on futures and for visions that go beyond the immediate. It also stands for a critical attitude. Therefore, we do not linger on a superficially used concept of innovation, but want to discuss which narratives are relevant for the future and which are actually just fairy tales.