WiHo editorial team: How would you assess the current status of research on higher education and science: What positive developments do you see? What do you think needs to be improved?
Reinmann: I'll answer this question from a perspective of higher education didactics. As far as I am concerned, your list should also include "education research." Basically, higher education didactics is a form of education research. What sets it apart is that it requires an orientation to research on science – this takes us into the area of science didactics – and to higher education research. Universities, as places for education, research and teaching, cannot be understood, described or enhanced via research that is solely sociological in nature.
Fortunately, research attention is again being given to science and education at higher education institutions. But there is still too little epistemic analysis of work at the nexus of research on education and research on higher education and science. We also see a lack of suitably diverse publications and forms of publication, and universities need to show a greater willingness to engage in self-reflection. Another important improvement would enable funding resources to be invested in a greater diversity of projects, and in projects with longer-term frameworks. In my view, greater trust should be placed in researchers. Funding providers should trust them to define their own topics, and pursue their own research questions, in justified, useful ways, rather than handing them specified topics and questions, in the context of programmes.

WiHo editorial team: How would you describe the status of research funding with regard to digital technologies and other innovations in higher education teaching?
Reinmann: At LMU Munich, we began offering virtual seminars back in 1998. In the context of cooperation with the business enterprise sector, the "old" ideas and findings that resulted from that effort are still being presented as "innovations" today. 

The stations I passed through, on my journey to higher education didactics, included clinical and pedagogical psychology and media didactics. In the period from 1995 and 2010, a highly creative community thrived in the media sector – and that is something that should not be forgotten as more and more new digitalisation buzzwords keep emerging. Today, just about any idea immediately gets commercialised, politicised – or converted, in the interest of driving up prices as rapidly as possible. The wave of MOOCs that washed over us provides a good example. In such developments, we need more solid cooperation between the areas of media didactics and higher education didactics. We need less PR and fewer slick websites, and we need more reliable theory and empirical findings.

WiHo editorial team: What research project are you focusing on at present, and how would you describe its social relevance? 
Reinmann: I would list at least three central projects that link research and teaching in efficient ways, and thereby generate social relevance. In our research project in support of the Quality Pact for Teaching, we are studying "research orientation in the introductory phase of studies" ("Forschungsorientierung in der Studieneingangsphase" (FideS)). As to methods, we are using a design-based-research (DBR) approach. To that end, we are establishing an international open-access journal (EDeR). In October, we will launch a reformed master's degree programme in higher education, at Universität Hamburg. We plan to provide scientific support and enhancement for that programme for a period of 2.5 years.

WiHo editorial team: Could you give us an idea of what design-based research looks like?
Reinmann: In our context, design-based research could best be described as "developmentally oriented education research." It's a form of research that cyclically links analysis, design and development, and evaluation and redesign. In DBR, one seeks both to obtain scientific findings and to achieve practical benefits. In the context of higher education teaching, this translates into a combination of producing generalisable results and generating solutions to local problems. DBR is much more widely used in English-speaking countries than it is in Germany, and it is easier to obtain funding for DBR projects in such countries than it is here. So there are lessons for us to be learned in this regard.

WiHo editorial team: What topics do you think will be most important in higher education didactics in the coming years?
Reinmann: I think issues regarding theoretical and institutional foundations will be important, because higher education didactics still lacks stable research structures. For example, one can find no area in the German Research Foundation (DFG) that would be a suitable recipient for funding applications for higher education didactics. There are virtually no professorships for higher education didactics or academic development, etc. Little research has been carried out in the areas of subject-based didactics in higher education and of examination systems, and yet those areas have great practical relevance. And as important as higher education didactics may be as a "service institution," we urgently need more commitment to research in higher education didactics / academic development – along with the self-reflection that would entail, at our universities, regarding academic teaching.