As a result, beginning in October, the JKU will welcome applications for the position, thereby creating an open process opportunity at the JKU and encouraging a competition of ideas. Whether or not Lukas will take part in the competitive process and submit an application to bid for a third term of office as Rector is something he is currently leaving open.

Meinhard Lukas' appointment as JKU Rector will end on September 30, 2023. The University Act and statutes would allow him to be re-appointed for a third term of office without being required to apply for the position, providing that the Senate and University Council agree and pass the measure with a majority two-thirds vote. At the request of Dr. Heinrich Schaller, University Council Chairman, Meinhard Lukas has stated that he will not seek reappointment without being subject to an application process.

Meinhard Lukas explained: "At the moment, the Rectorate, the Senate and the University Council are focused strongly on important decisions regarding the JKU, particularly pertaining to laying the foundation for the TU. Establishing the TU will have significant implications for Upper Austria as an academic location, particularly the JKU, even if all of our structures are to remain intact. Over the next few weeks, and during the legislative process, our main concern should focus on securing the JKU’s standing in the best way possible. There is little breathing room to prepare an application to seek reappointment as Rector, an application which needs to be carefully prepared and well thought out."

Selecting a Rector at the JKU Welcomes a Competition of Ideas
Based on this decision, the university will welcome applications for the position of Rector, most likely beginning in October. Meinhard Lukas added: “This will open the doors to a more competitive process between applicants in regard to ideas and concepts, particularly in an effort to support the JKU’s growth and advancement. After two terms as Rector, this line of action seems fitting.”

Lukas will not decide until October whether or not he intends to seek the position of Rector at the JKU again.

Numerous Accomplishments Together since 2015
Meinhard Lukas has been the Rector of the JKU since 2015. Together with his team and over 3,600 employees at the JKU, he has sharpened the JKU's profile, visibility, and image, making the university even more popular and attractive. Some of the milestones include:

• Negotiating the JKU’s three-year global budget, which is largely negotiated by the Rector (incl. Article 15a, the Faculty of Medicine Agreement, tuition fee rates and salary increases), increased from € 312 million (Performance Agreement 2013 to 2015) to € 614.4 million (Performance Agreement 2022 to 2024). This corresponds to an increase of € 302.4 million, or 96.9%.
• Contrary to an Austria-wide trend, since 2015 the number of students actively taking examinations at the JKU has increased by 16.2%. In regard to important STEM degree programs, there has been an enrollment increase of 36.2 % and in the area of computer sciences, thanks to the degree program in AI, there has been an increase of 139.9 %.
• In addition to the already 130 or so institutes, since 2015, a modern matrix structure was put in place, paving the way to create JKU Schools. There are now five JKU Schools:

o Since 2015, the Linz Institute of Technology (LIT) has been pooling the university's interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary technology expertise together to create a high-profile focus on digital transformation. Prof. Sepp Hochreiter heads the LIT AI Lab.

o Since 2016 and as part of the JKU's commitment to supporting teacher education studies (together with other universities in the Cluster Mitte network), the School of Education has been involved in a number of cross-faculty activities. Over 100 million people use Prof. Markus Hohenwarter’s GeoGebra program.

o Since 2019, the JKU Business School has been on a mission to educate and train leaders and managers of the future.

o Since 2021, the Kurt Rothschild School for Economics and Statistics has been conducting empirical research in business and economics combined with statistical methods, Big Data, and digitization.

o The School of Social Sciences and Humanities is currently in its development phase.
 

• At the end of 2021, plans to create the Linz Institute of Transformative Change (LIFT_C) were put into motion. LIFT_C will focus on some of the major challenges of our time from an interdisciplinary perspective. The institute aims to focus on technological approaches that go hand-in-hand with stimulating behavioral changes in society and in the business community.
• Likewise, the "project of the century" was the JKU Faculty of Medicine, achieved during Lukas' term of office. The Medical Campus opened in 2021, and the JKU medSPACE, unique in Europe, opened its doors, giving the JKU an opportunity to set new standards in virtual medical education.
• In addition, since 2018, the JKU began a campus enhancement program in an effort to modernize and expand the campus. There are a number of new buildings, including the Learning Center (library), Kepler Hall, LIT Open Innovation Center, Science Park 4 and 5, and the Circus of Knowledge. There is a wide range of on-campus dining options (the TeichWerk, dasKUYO, the university cafeteria (Mensa), the Science Café, and the JKU sausage stand, Die* Obelisk, etc.). There are stores for everyday needs (including a SPAR supermarket), bank branches, a newly designed Thalia bookstore, as well as recreational and sports areas. All of this adds a new quality of life when it comes to learning, studying, working, and spending time at the JKU.
• The motto "Knowledge in Society" has stood for the university's highly important "Third Mission" during Meinhard Lukas' term of office. The print newspaper “Kepler Tribune”, the Kepler Salon, and the new "Circus of Knowledge" are mediums and venues to make academic and scientific topics more accessible to the general public. Organizing the Linz “Klangwolke” to mark JKU's 50th anniversary served as the initial catalyst.
• The JKU has been strengthening the relationship between academia, science, and culture with groundbreaking collaboration efforts with the Ars Electronica Festival (since 2020) and the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
• The JKU’s "Safety First" concept gets the JKU’s 3,600 employees and 23,000 students safely through the Coronavirus pandemic without producing clusters.