New Leadership for the Public Management Program: Two Perspectives That Go Hand in Hand
What happens when the leadership of a program changes? In the best-case scenario, things don’t simply stay the same - instead, space is created for new perspectives without losing what has been tried and true.
Effective October 1, FH-Prof. MMag.a Dr.Kathrin Stainer-Hämmerle will assume the role of Rector of CU Carinthia University. This marks the end of her previous role as head of the Public Management program. From that date on, FH-Prof. Dr. Birgit Aigner-Walder and FH-Prof. Dr. Marika Gruber will take over as heads of the academic program.
Both have been active in teaching and research at CU Carinthia University for many years and share a common academic background: They focus on social and economic changes, migration, the labor market, and regional development - and thus on issues that extend far beyond individual disciplines.
Marika Gruber: Migration, Integration and Rural Areas
Marika Gruber is a professor of migration and diversity at CU Carinthia University. She studied public management at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and earned her doctorate at the Alps-Adriatic University of Klagenfurt. Her research focuses, among other things, on migration and integration, particularly in municipalities and rural areas. Other topics include interculturality and transculturality, modern administrative management and transdisciplinary, participatory research.
Her research combines academic analysis with concrete issues from regions, municipalities, and public administration. For example, Gruber has been involved in international research projects on the social and economic impacts of migration in rural areas, the development of integration models, the onboarding of international skilled workers in companies and the role of the social economy in the inclusion of people in vulnerable situations.
Birgit Aigner-Walder: Economics, Demography and the Labor Market
Birgit Aigner-Walder has been a professor of economics at CU Carinthia University since 2014, specializing in public finance, regional economics and population economics. Previously, she worked in applied economic research, including at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Carinthia. She also helped establish the Institute for Applied Research on Ageing (IARA) at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and has been a member of its scientific leadership since 2016.
Her research focuses in particular on the economic challenges and opportunities posed by demographic change. Her work focuses, among other things, on the effects of population aging on public services, the labor market and public administration, as well as on the role of (internal) migration in rural areas. She heads the Department for Demographic Change and Regional Development (DCRD) at the IARA research center.
The fact that the two have been collaborating on research for years is evident from their joint work at the IARA Research Institute (Marika Gruber is the deputy head of the DCRD department) as well as their joint studies and publications, including those on youth unemployment and migration in rural areas and participatory research. In addition, both are graduates of the Municipal and Public Management program, which at the time was still offered as a Diplom Degree program.
What Remains, What’s Next
The change in leadership of the academic track involves more than just a change in role. Two individuals are taking on responsibility who already know the academic track from different perspectives - on the one hand, from their own academic experience and on the other, from research, teaching, and joint scholarly work.
Kathrin Stainer-Hämmerle is stepping down from her role as head of the program and will assume a new position as rector at the CU effective October 1. Her two successors will jointly continue to lead the program in the future.