Finding digital solutions in pandemic times: the case of appointment procedures for professors at German universities

Abstract

AbstractIn higher education and beyond, the Covid-19 pandemic is considered to have accelerated digitalisation. While this acceleration is usually viewed in the context of the digital transformation that is characterised by its longevity, the permanence of pandemic-driven digitalisation requires investigation. Focusing on appointment procedures for professors as a central element of universities’ governance, the qualitative study presented here employed expert interviews and group discussions to investigate how German universities responded to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic by furthering digitalisation. Drawing on the concept of synchronous and asynchronous communication and Luhmann’s understanding of decision programmes, this article proposes differentiating between two modes of digitalisation in order to systematise the empirical findings and thus analytically distinguish pandemic-driven digitalisation from the general digital transformation. It finds that not all of the newly implemented digital solutions will be used permanently and argues that this can be understood in terms of obstructed decision programmes.