Karlshochschule International University has appointed Prof. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers as Visiting Professor. With this, the university becomes the first private institution in Germany to establish a visiting professorship exclusively to the topic of Future Skills – the competencies that enable people to act effectively in a complex, digitalized, and globally networked world.
“With the appointment of Ulf-Daniel Ehlers as Visiting Professor for Future Skills, we are breaking new ground,” explains President Prof. Dr. Robert Lepenies. “Karls sees itself as a real-world laboratory for societal change. Future Skills are the bridge between academic teaching, research-based development, and social responsibility. At Karlshochschule, we developed the concept of Future Capabilities with all stakeholders and have been implementing them in our curricula”.
Future Skills – such as self-directed learning, collaboration, creativity, ethical judgment, digital sovereignty, and systems thinking – are considered key qualifications for navigating highly complex, uncertain, and digitalized living and working environments. With this visiting professorship, Karlshochschule aims to develop innovative teaching formats, accompany research initiatives, and deepen cooperation with partner universities at home and abroad. At the same time, it is preparing the expansion of its campuses in Chemnitz (technology-oriented) and Potsdam (artistic-creative) to further strengthen its profile as an international university.
Prof. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers is Professor of Educational Management and Lifelong Learning at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Karlsruhe, where he served as Vice President from 2011 to 2017. In that role, he significantly shaped the development of the largest university in Baden-Württemberg, which now has more than 34,000 students.
As founder and head of the research group NextEducation, Ehlers is recognized internationally as one of the leading experts on Future Skills, educational quality, and university transformation. He is co-initiator and elected board member of the Future Skills Alliance, the most important network for future competencies in Germany. At the European level, he led key working groups on the future of higher education for the Bologna Process Ministerial Conference and was for many years Vice President of EURASHE, one of the four major associations in the European Higher Education Area.
His research and consulting activities have taken him to more than 45 countries worldwide. He is the author of over 300 publications, widely honored, and internationally recognized with more than 7,500 citations.
“I am very much looking forward to working with Karlshochschule,” says Ehlers. “The systematic integration of Future Skills into teaching and learning is the central challenge for higher education in the coming years. With this visiting professorship, we are sending a strong signal: Karls is leading the way and creating spaces in which students can develop the competencies that our society and economy will need in the future.”
The visiting professorship will kick off with a public KarlsGespräch on November 5 at 7:00 p.m. in the Playspace of Karlshochschule in Karlsruhe. Registrations can be made via info@karlshochschule.de
