Moving Knowledge Forward: Experiencing FAU in a New Digital Light 
With over 275 degree programs, around 40,000 students, and excellent research, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), founded in 1743, is one of the largest universities in Germany. For a long time, this strength was not reflected digitally: approximately 1,100 independently grown websites, fragmented structures, and inconsistent user experiences. In 2025, FAU decided to make a fundamental fresh start. FAU.de, the university's central website, was completely reimagined, not as an endpoint, but as a blueprint. The resulting mobile-optimized design system "FAU Elemental" will be rolled out to all independent websites by summer 2026. An infrastructure decision for the future. 

From Administrative Presence to Digital Ecosystem
What does it mean to digitally reimagine one of Germany's largest universities, while keeping operations running at the same time? In this talk, we take you behind the scenes of one of the most ambitious university web projects in recent years. 

What to Expect: 
You will learn how FAU developed a unified design system for over 1,100 websites, how internal stakeholders were brought on board, and how university units with very different requirements were integrated into a shared system. And how a classic administrative web presence is being transformed into a vibrant digital ecosystem. 

Specifically, we will cover: 

Who Is This Talk For?
This talk is aimed at everyone who leads or supports digital transformation projects in large organizations, whether in higher education, non-profit organizations, or companies with complex, organically grown web landscapes. Whether you are just at the beginning of your own digital journey or already in the middle of a relaunch: we promise you practical insights, concrete learnings, and plenty of inspiration.
 
Join us on a journey through a webrelaunch that does not just change a website, but makes an entire university digitally tangible in a whole new way.