The Lower Saxony State Rectors' Conference (LHK) unanimously elected Prof. Dr. iur. Volker Epping as its new chairperson at its plenary session on 18 May 2026. The election was held before the end of the regular term because the current LHK chairperson, Osnabrück University president Prof. Dr. Susanne Menzel-Riedl, who has held the office since 2022, will take up a new position as president of the University of Münster on 1 October. She will therefore no longer be available to serve the Lower Saxony LHK. Prof. Dr. Volker Epping, president of Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), was elected to the board in 2020 and 2025. He has been involved in the LHK’s work since 2015, where his proven expertise as a specialist on higher education law means he is the central contact person for the universities on matters related to higher education policy and law, as well as for the state government and ministries, in particular the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony.
Prof. Dr. Alexander Schmehmann, president of the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, was also elected as a new member of the LHK board and as the deputy chairperson. He succeeds Dr. Marc Hudy, who has stepped down for health-related reasons.
Prof. Dr. Sascha Spoun, president of Leuphana University Lüneburg, led the process of finding a new LHK chairperson and expressed his relief following the vote: “This year’s search was especially challenging. Given our colleague Susanne Menzel-Riedl’s excellent leadership, the bar was very high. I am certain that with our highly capable and experienced colleague Volker Epping as chair, the Lower Saxony LHK will continue to successfully navigate the big challenges and tasks ahead.”
Volker Epping thanked the LHK members for the trust placed in him. In these turbulent times involving wide-ranging challenges at the national, European and global levels, he said, a clear outlook and the capacity to act are particularly important for higher education institutions: “We will continue to face significant challenges, which we can only overcome together.”
Twenty universities and universities of applied sciences work together within the Lower Saxony LHK to advocate for their joint interests.
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