New Vice President at the University of Jena

In its meeting on 19. September 2023, the Senate elected the developmental psychologist Prof. Dr Karina Weichold as the new Vice President for Studies and Teaching. After a successful term of three years, her predecessor Prof. Dr Kim Siebenhüner did not stand for re-election in order to return to academia. Karina Weichold's three-year term will begin on 16 October 2023.

"I warmly congratulate colleague Weichold on her election and am delighted that we have been able to recruit her as a member of the University Presidential Board," says Prof. Dr Walter Rosenthal, President of Friedrich Schiller University Jena. "Karina Weichold has held the office of Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences since 2019 and is thus very familiar with current topics in studying and teaching. At the same time, I would like to thank Kim Siebenhüner for her extraordinary commitment over the past years. Teaching at the university has made great strides in development, not least thanks to her successful crisis management during the pandemic; in particular, she has strategically advanced digital teaching and firmly established it with innovative formats and projects."

As Vice President, Karina Weichold would like to strengthen the importance of good teaching at all levels and keep teaching strategies up to date in order to do justice to social, demographic and cultural change. Examples include the further expansion of digital teaching formats, the development and promotion of international degree programmes, and the use of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning.

Karina Weichold studied at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the University College of Galway (Ireland) and received her doctorate in 2002 from the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Jena. In 2012, she habilitated on the topic of "Prevention and Developmental Support in Adolescence: Evaluation of the School-Based Addiction Prevention Life Skills Programme IPSY" and received the Venia Legendi in the subject "Psychology". Karina Weichold held the Chair of Developmental Psychology and the Professorship of Psychology (Supplementary Subject) as a substitute professor for several years. Following a call to a university professorship, Friedrich Schiller University Jena appointed Karina Weichold as an associate professor in 2018, with corporate status as an appointed professor (2020). Today, Karina Weichold heads the Department of Youth Research at the Institute of Psychology here.