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Center for Higher Education

Sheron Baumann

Sheron Baumann is is an external doctoral student at the Professorship of Higher Education. The topic of his doctoral thesis is "Organizational and individual ambidexterity in Swiss Higher Education Institutions".

Portrait photo of Sheron Baumann © Steffi Slanzi​/​Foto Ecker Luzern

Doctoral Thesis

Organizational and individual ambidexterity in Swiss Higher Education Institutions

Higher education institutions fulfill various missions, including teaching and research and also have to keep developing and adjusting to political realities. As in other countries, the higher education sector in Switzerland experienced profound changes in the last 25 years. Notably, this included the formation of Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts as well as Universities of Teacher Education from teaching institutions that previously provided vocational education only. The two new university types received a new remit which also includes research and had to adopt a Humboldtian model. This change had consequences for the lecturers and put high demands on the still developing organizational ambidexterity. The PhD project pursues the question how Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences and Arts and Universities of Teacher Education responded to the need to become ambidextrous through their staffing policies and practices. The research relies in no small part on data gathered through a nationwide survey in 2018.

Professional Activity

Sheron Baumann started working as a research associate and project manager at the Institute of Business and Regional Economics IBR, which belongs to the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, in 2012. After completing a vocational business education, he studied economics at the University of Berne, Switzerland and subsequently completed a teacher education. Along with teaching social workers the basics of economics, Sheron's responsibilities at the IBR are concentrated in research projects. They cover a broad area and include the return on continuing education as well as the profiles of lecturers teaching at Swiss universities of applied sciences and arts and universities of teacher education.

Profile at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts