The three-person evaluation group chaired by Professor Joachim Buhmann (ETH Zurich) summarized their assessment in the executive summary as follows:
“General considerations: The Computer Science Faculties world-wide but in particular also the Computer Science Faculty at the University of Vienna experience the digital transformation with very high enrolment numbers of bachelor and master students. This popularity of the subject results in a substantially increased demand in teaching capacity. The CS faculty also has to respond to a strong demand of their research expertise by other faculties in the natural sciences, social sciences, life science and the humanities. Computer Science as an academic field has evolved over the last decade from a highly specialized area between engineering and mathematics to a broad methodological science that combines Data Science with traditionally covered areas in Computer Science. The leadership of the Univ. Vienna and of the Faculty of Computer Science are well advised to consider this disruptive change in the academic landscape and to structure teaching and research accordingly to respond to these developments.
Research: Computer Science is a fairly novel research field between mathematics and engineering. The four research foci defined by the faculty can support the required cross-pollination amongst specialized research groups to cover important areas of CS research today in a multidisciplinary way. The faculty is still mid-sized with an international visibility and impact ranging from good to excellent (measured by e.g. citations acc. to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment DORA). The faculty is situated in the vicinity of the substantially larger CS faculty of the TU Vienna and, therefore, is well advised to focus on topics that combine traditional strengths of Univ. Vienna with emerging computer science topics like data science, AI with algorithmic decision making, human centric computing, information systems, security, foundations of CS, etc. A coverage of CS topics with a subcritical number of experts per topic might alleviate challenges in teaching but will likely cause deficits for international research excellence. The trade-off where to strike the balance is and also should be in the future a prime concern of the faculty.
Teaching: The currently very high enrolment numbers of students in CS related teaching programs causes a substantial overload in teaching responsibilities and hinders the faculty to play its necessary role in the digital transformation. The CS faculty is well advised to re-assess its priorities in terms of teaching. In particular it should decide where to free the necessary professorial teaching resources to provide the high-quality service teaching for other faculties that is required to render the digital transformation a success for the Univ. Vienna. Responsibilities in the current teaching programs and their administration do not support the necessary involvement in service teaching.
Self-governance: The administrative structures are well designed and in place. The faculty is sufficiently self-critical and aware of international development trends in computer science to be capable of mastering the challenges in these disruptive times. Together with the rector’s office, the faculty could reflect on its mission: Is it (A) to represent computer science at Univ. Vienna of (B) to represent CS for the CS students? A clarification of this self-image could help to resolve diverging views on priorities, investment strategies and resource allocations.”
The report contains a number of recommendations for further improvements in research as well as study and teaching. The evaluation results were discussed and measures included in the implementation agreement between the rectorate and the faculty. The implementation monitoring is part of the target agreement process.
Peer reports and statements from the faculty are available to university members at www.qs.univie.ac.at/en/evaluation/faculties-centres/evaluation-reports/.
