TU Graz Honours Outstanding Teaching

Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) aims to offer its students education at the highest level. Every year, it awards the Prize for Excellence in Teaching to three courses and honours lecturers and teams of lecturers for their exceptional commitment and outstanding teaching concepts. This year's winners received their awards at a ceremony on 18 November 2025.

The award winners and their courses 2024/2025

Laboratory course „Molecular Biology Laboratory Course I“
Anita Emmerstorfer-Augustin, Robert Kourist, Regina Maria Leber, Christoph Reisinger, Lucija Sovic, Jelena Spasic and Jasmin Zuson

“Safety in laboratories is an essential part of teaching. The teaching staff in the course ‘Molecular Biology Exercises I’ are particularly successful in addressing this issue through the use of innovative teaching and learning methods,’ the selection committee summarizes in its assessment of the course. ‘Software enables students to reflect on the experimental setups before they begin and learn relevant aspects. The laboratory concept, which has been redesigned in recent years, is greatly appreciated by students, as can be seen from the course evaluations.”

Course „Festigkeitslehre“
Kevin Pendl

“Great commitment on the part of the lecturer, a student-centred approach and the use of a self-programmed tool that makes it easier for students to engage with calculation examples from the field of strength of materials: these are the elements that Kevin Pendl has successfully integrated into the ‘Festigkeitslehre’ course over the last few years. Despite the high level of supervision required, the lecturer manages to teach a subject that is considered ‘difficult’ by students in an excellent manner,” the selection committee noted in its assessment.

Lecture and course „MB-Grundausbildung I“
Patrick Rene Kröpfl and Christian Landschützer

“How can I teach my subject to students from a completely different degree programme? Patrick Rene Kröpfl and Christian Landschützer addressed this question in their implementation of the VU ‘MB-Grundausbildung I’ (Mechanical Engineering Basics I). Students from Chemical and Process Engineering and Biomedical Engineering learn the basics of mechanical engineering and benefit from the focus on student feedback, didactic training and different teaching methods. The course succeeds in catering excellently to a heterogeneous group of students with different levels of prior knowledge,” the members of the selection committee noted in their meeting.

Acknowledgements

The prize money of €3,000 gross per course is co-financed by long-standing sponsors. Graz University of Technology would like to thank the sponsors for their support and, in particular, for the appreciation they show for its courses, lecturers, students and graduates (in alphabetical order):

• alumniTUGraz 1887 / in cooperation with alumnus Dr Odorich Susani
• Styrian Chamber of Labour
• Styrian Federation of Industries

How the winners are selected

Every year, students, student representatives and deans of studies nominate outstanding courses for the award. The nomination in itself is a sign of appreciation for the lecturers and their commitment. After a formal review of the nominated courses, the lecturers submit their teaching concepts and often additional supporting material. Based on these sometimes very extensive documents, each member of the selection committee evaluates the courses and their concepts according to defined criteria. These individual evaluations are compared at the selection committee meeting, where variations in the evaluation scores and the reasons for outstanding evaluations are discussed, and a maximum of three particularly convincing courses are selected.

The members of the commission are the Vice-Rector for Teaching (Chair), members of the Student Union, the Senate's Curriculum Commission for Bachelor's and Master's programmes, the Senate, and experts on academic teaching from the group of award sponsors.