Call for Participation 2025
The Call for Participation of the University:Future Festival 2025 /imagine runs from 11 November to 20 January 2025 and we are looking for talks, workshops, discussions, micro-trainings and other formats. The focus is always on (digital) innovations in academic education and beyond. We invite all interested parties to participate.
Please note: The Call for Participation is intended for all contributions that fit into a time frame of the programme. Please also have a look at our Call for Arts & Interaction.
Are you looking for specific information? Then click here for tracks, target groups, formats, content and process and. There is also an FAQ that answers most of the open questions.
The motto: /imagine
The festival motto for 2025 is /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 mottoaddresses 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 starts the command to create a new image. By referencing the command line and artificial intelligence, we also place current technical issues at the centre of the festival.
Tracks – the topics we want to address
The programme of the University:Future Festival is structured into six tracks. The tracks reflect the topics that move our communities. They are based on the results of a community survey, strategic planning and experiences from previous events.
You can find an overview of all tracks here.
Who we are looking for – target groups of the call
Anyone can take part in the Call for Participation of the University:Future Festival 2025 – because higher education concerns us all. We are very interested in bringing innovative ideas and examples of good practice from all over the world to the festival programme. In particular, we are addressing
University staff: The main target group of the festival are people who work at universities – as teachers, lecturers, managers or administrative staff. Of course, this also includes employees of support organisations such as IT, data protection or legal departments. Representatives of private educational institutions are just as welcome to attend as people from public universities.
Students: Strengthening the voice of students is a particular concern of the U:FF. We invite student organisations and individuals to present their ideas, perspectives, opinions and demands at the festival.
Civil society: Perspectives on academic education are relevant from many sectors of society. We are looking for people from all sectors who have something to say about the future of (digital) higher education.
Companies: EdTechs and other companies offer innovative solutions, have training needs for their employees and are important cooperation partners for universities in study programmes and continuing education. They offer innovative solutions for many challenges. Please note that pure product pitches cannot be part of the programme.
Formats: What we are looking for
You can submit a range of formats as part of the Call for Participation for the University:Future Festival 2025. Please note that only digital workshops and training sessions will be offered on the last day of the event.
| Format | Description | Duration | Location |
| Inputs | Input on a topic by one or more people. The focus should be on applicable knowledge. The form can vary, but the most common form is a presentation (approx. 20 minutes) followed by a discussion. A maximum of two people should provide input; a larger number should be justified in terms of content. | 30 minutes | Digital, individual submissions are invited to presence stages |
| Lightning Talks | Short inputs by a maximum of two people. | 5 minutes | Digital |
| Discussions | A dynamic and diverse discussion by several people. The planned co-discussants must be named in the submission. Each panellist should be scheduled to speak for at least 10 minutes on average, i.e. for a 30-minute discussion: max. three panellists, for 60 minutes four to five. | 30 or 60 minutes | Digital, individual submissions are invited to presence stages |
| Workshops | Interactive formats with a limited number of participants (maximum of 50 people as standard). Active work with the participants is a prerequisite. | 60 ore 120 minutes | Digital, individual workshops are invited to take place in presence |
| Trainings | Short learning units. There is no limit to the number of participants. Active work with participants is optional and depends on the learning objective. | 60 or 120 minutes | Digital, individual training courses purely in presence |
Places: Where you can present
The University:Future Festival is a hybrid digital-first event with an expected 5 stages throughout Germany. In other words: our format is unusual.
We therefore ask you for information on where you can and want to present from:
- The standard is the presentation from the digital space.
- It is possible that we invite you to a presentation on one of our physical stages. In this case, you present on site and are streamed to the digital platform. We will therefore ask you whether you are willing to travel in principle.
Please note: If we invite you to one of our stages with an input, we generally limit the number of people to two for cost reasons.
Content: What we are looking for
A good submission is characterised by the following:
- Solutions, relevance, attitude, topicality, constructive criticism: we want to shed light on different perspectives. We welcome a wide range of topics and perspectives.
- Entertaining: We are looking for good content – and want to see it presented well.
- Reference to motto and tracks: Make a connection to the festival motto and the respective track in the title and description.
- Diversity: A gender balance, visibility of people of colour and people who do not feel they belong to the traditional gender binary are particularly important to us.
- No sales pitches. Pure product marketing pitches and obvious advertising will not be considered.
Process of the call
The Call for Participation of the University:Future Festival 2025 runs until 20 January 2025. After the submission deadline, your proposal will be reviewed by a track jury. The track juries are made up of experts in the respective field, students and representatives of the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung, the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre and stage partners. We make sure that your entry is read and evaluated by at least five to three people, usually more.
In a second stage, the heads of the track juries come together and decide on the programme. You will receive a decision from the jury by the beginning of March 2025 at the latest.
In the event of a negative decision, you will receive an explanation from us.
If you have any questions, please contact us:
Sebastian Horndasch
festival_programm@hochschulforum.org
+49 (0) 174 9080747
