Caspar, you have been a long-time member of the CHANCEN eG supervisory board. How did it all start? What is your personal story with the Income Share Agreement (ISA)?
Meine persönliche Geschichte hat verschiedene Verbindungslinien mit dem UGV und den damit verbundenen My personal story has various connections with the ISA and the organizations associated with it. Even before I applied for my bachelor’s degree at the University of Witten / Herdecke, I had read a newspaper article that described the StudierendenGesellschaft (SG), the ISA and the related opportunities to participate in different forms of university life. Thereby, it was clear to me that I wanted to participate in both the university and the organization of this educational institution. This happened faster than I thought: at the end of my first semester, I was elected into the SG board. This marked the beginning of a very exciting and instructive time: for the SG and the University of Witten/Herdecke – but also for me personally. After almost two years of board activity, followed by three months with the Kaospiloten in Denmark and a few other projects, I was elected into the Supervisory Board of the SG in 2011. As chairman of the board, I got to know Florian and Olaf as well as Niklas Becker (also a member of the supervisory board of CHANCEN eG). The connection to the CHANCEN cooperative also stems from this time. I was involved in its foundation from the beginning as a representative of SG – as one of the “sister organizations” – but also as a personally interested person. When it was founded five years ago, I was elected to the supervisory board for the first time; two years ago, I took over the chairmanship of the board after Joachim Rang left. So I am intensively involved in two ISA-providing organizations.
What event in your time as a member of the Supervisory Board of CHANCEN eG do you remember best?
There are various events that I remember gladly, such as the founding event in Witten, the General Assembly 2018 in the rooms of Code University, or individual moments from meetings and gatherings that mark development steps of the cooperative. In particular, I am pleased with the fundamental and increasingly strong feeling that with the model of the Income Share Agreement (ISA) implemented by CHANCEN eG, there is a profoundly fair way of financing studies and that the cooperative thus contributes to more equal access to education.
How do you personally shape your role as a supervisory board member? Do you have any particular affairs of the heart?
I would answer the question about affairs of the heart with a precise “yes and no”. It’s important to me that the organization functions in its various facets and can deal productively with different expectations. What that means in terms of tasks or activities from the Supervisory Board in particular can only be described clearly on a temporary basis: For example, three or four years ago our discussions about capital raising strategies had completely different content, and the discussion also had a different structure than it has today. So there are different topics or perspectives on issues over time that change with the organization, which I believe should receive special attention. In addition, the common task of the Supervisory Board is to implement the trust expressed by the Cooperative Assembly through monitoring and advising the Board of Management, in order to support their responsibilities in managing the cooperative. This kind of support takes place in very different ways and, in my experience, also in different formats.
Nevertheless, there are issues that are particularly close to my heart. For me, it is important that CHANCEN eG functions excellently as an employer and continues to develop. Moreover, it shows its development through the appearance of the organization. Looking into the environment of CHANCEN eG, I am happy to see that the ISA promotes different disciplines and courses of study as well as other formats of tertiary education. For example at universities that do not necessarily adhere to a clear idea of education. I believe that diversity in an education system generates more return than the achievement of preconceived and unambiguous performance targets. In this regard, it is also important to me that with the ISA we are striving to reach people who do not (initially) feel addressed by educational opportunities and who can use the ISA to walk on their personal path. In this sense, the ISA remains for me a means to an end, which in some places could also be reached in a different way – which, however, does not open up any difficulties from my point of view.
Looking now at the current situation of the cooperative, I think that after five years we have come a long way. At the same time, there is a lot ahead of us that we want to achieve together. This kind of growth must be accompanied in such a way that the tension it expresses between internal organizational focus and strategic development and expansion is appropriately reinforced and neither one-sidedly neglects opportunities nor excessively drifts across arcs. I consider this form of balancing to be one of the essential tasks for the next few years on the way to an even more professional and at the same time wisely prioritizing organization.
What are your tasks as Chairman of the Supervisory Board?
I see the tasks of the chairman in particular in the organization of communication within the Supervisory Board as well as between the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. This includes ensuring a regular flow of information, as well as organizing meetings and telephone conferences concerning the interests of the Supervisory Board as defined in the Articles of Association. For the Executive Board, I am the first contact person for the Supervisory Board. In addition, I support individual projects of the Board of Management with advice and assistance. It is particularly important to me that we as the Supervisory Board can work with each other in such a way that, on the one hand, we can fully perform our statutory duties, but on the other hand, we can irritate each other in a productive way through “loose coupling” so that we continue to accompany the organization with new observations. This form of interaction is important because only in this way can we introduce new distinctions as observations. The consequence is twofold: it should be possible for us to change in our work as a Supervisory Board without necessarily renouncing what already exists; but secondly it should make a “doing” possible that sees itself as part of the organizational culture and reflects it. Taking this second aspect to the extreme, I even see a political form of cooperation that strengthens differences in order to work together.
Why are you running for a position on the Supervisory Board again? What would you like to implement in your “next term”?
I would like to contribute my skills and competencies to the organization and thus help CHANCEN eG to grow to the full extent of its possibilities. In doing so, I see myself continuing in the role of shaping communication between the committees and the people involved in them in such a way that they can come to productive insights and helpful observations in their field of tension. In more concrete terms, this means that as the Supervisory Board of an organization that is still in the process of being established, we must constantly help to balance the different directions in order to both pursue various interests and keep track of the individuals and the organization in appropriate proportions. The growth course I want to see naturally requires entrepreneurial ambitions, but at the same time these should be supported by stable processes and accompanied by reflective phases. With this perspective, it is difficult for me to single out individual projects that I would like to implement over the next three years. My concern is that we, as the Supervisory Board as a whole, should be able to manage our diverse areas of responsibility together. It seems to me that it could be particularly valuable to connect the various professional and human qualifications within our Board with each other. I am very much looking forward to this work.
Where do you see CHANCEN eG in ten years?
I would like CHANCEN eG to become the largest, most sustainable and fairest provider of tertiary education in the next ten years. In addition the CHANCEN eG should stabilize and further expand its own product portfolio as an organization, with offerings that address the various points in the student and alumni lifecycle. And this as an organization for which it is a pleasure to work!
