Kai-Uwe Schnapp is the new dean of the WiSo Faculty“Advancing the Area of Studies and Teaching Is A Top Priority”

5 May 2025, by Tim Schreiber

Photo: University of Hamburg / Feuerböther

Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Schnapp

On 1 May 2025, Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Schnapp became the new dean of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo) at the University of Hamburg We interviewed him about his motivation, his goals, and important topics at his faculty.

What has motivated you to run for office?

Society is facing major challenges and so is academia. How can we best contribute to meeting these challenges as a university and, specifically, as the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences? How can we develop our research profile? Is our studies and teaching approach state-of-the-art? How can we attract the next generations of students? How can we shape students into future-ready global problem solvers?

These are questions we can tackle as professors of certain degree programs by means of an integrative approach and coordinated efforts. I specifically aim to help integrate, coordinate, and interconnect in the next few years.

What topic ranks highest in your role as a dean?

It’s not about one important topic. However, furthering the area of studies and teaching is a top priority, for instance, by establishing new degree programs at our faculty. At the same time, we must explore how the faculty can use its current research strength to thrive in future. We need to discuss how to best make our room resources available to all members of the Faculty. And we will ask what structure best fits our future work.

What are your other other priorities?

I want to sustain and further improve our successful equity efforts. This is something I want to address with my colleagues. Those who know me know that I am very committed to knowledge transfer and research that engage society. This will not change when I am dean. Ultimately, I find it very important to further improve communication within the faculty to reach a mutual understanding of what helps us all do a great job. Decisions should ideally be grounded on broad consensus.

To what extent can you integrate your previous professional duties into your new role?

A great part of my research has focused on public administration and the University is a corporation under German public law I am sure this will allow me to bring my academic experience to bear on my new role. I gained valuable experience in other roles I played at the University, first of all in my previous 4-year term as a member of the dean’s office in the WiSo Faculty. Also, I served as department spokesperson, long-term program director, and as a member of the Academic Senate for several years. Knowing the various roles and University committees inside out enables me can to draw my own conclusions from processes at various levels of the University. I hope this will be helpful in my new role.

What will you miss the most?

I am a passionate university teacher. As I would sorely miss the teacher-student contact, I will continue to teach but have reduced my hours significantly. This also relates to my special focus on studies and teaching. I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to aim for changes in an area if you do not actively participate in the daily business at all.