Manuel Dolderer

The Story

I've spent over 20 years asking the same question: How should we learn when the world keeps changing faster than our institutions can adapt?

It started at Universität Witten/Herdecke, Germany's oldest private university and one of its most experimental. As a student of business economics and philosophy, I experienced what happens when a university takes learning seriously: not as content delivery, but as personal transformation. I studied there from 1998 to 2006, served on the executive board of the StudierendenGesellschaft, and helped build the Witten Institute for Strategy and Management.

That experience planted a conviction: universities can be built differently. And I set out to prove it. Twice.

Building Universities from Scratch

My first venture into university building came with the Klett Group, one of Europe's largest education companies. I co-founded and served as managing director of praxisHochschule in Cologne, a state-recognized university of applied sciences focused on practice-integrated learning in social and health services. It taught me how education innovation works within corporate structures and regulatory constraints.

Then came CODE University of Applied Sciences. In 2016, together with tech entrepreneur Thomas Bachem and Jonathan Ruth, along with 24 internet entrepreneurs and investors, I co-founded what would become one of Germany's most talked-about education experiments. As founding president from 2017 to 2023, I designed and implemented CODE's learning model: curiosity-driven, project-based, competency-oriented, with no lectures and no traditional exams.

The model worked. CODE attracted over 2,000 applications for 88 spots. Students weren't taught; they learned, by building real projects in interdisciplinary teams from day one, guided by professors who acted as mentors, not lecturers. One in ten CODE students started ventures during their studies. Five Y Combinator startups came out of our community. Sheryl Sandberg noted that CODE plays "a very important role" in developing technological skills.

From Building Universities to Building AI Learning Systems

When generative AI arrived, most of higher education debated policies. I started building. Because the question that drives me had just changed shape: if machines now handle pattern recognition and reliable execution, what should humans learn, and how?

My answer is agency: the capacity to act meaningfully under uncertainty, to start things, to take responsibility for outcomes you cannot predict. And because I distrust theories that were never tested, I test mine in code. I founded TransformEducation, an AI learning platform piloted with students at Universität Witten/Herdecke. It embeds an AI coach in real student projects and builds proven learning science, retrieval practice and spaced repetition, directly into the architecture. Alongside it, I teach Understanding AI seminars at UW/H and CODE and run a steady stream of smaller experiments, from WhatsApp learning coaches to AI persona tools. You can see the current state of the workbench in the Lab.

Beyond the University Walls

Education transformation doesn't stop at university gates. That's why I co-founded Code+Design Initiative e.V., a nonprofit that runs coding camps across Germany, giving underprivileged children and young people the chance to explore digital technologies and experience self-determination. Through partnerships like RAG-Stiftung, we've reached over 1,000 disadvantaged youth in the Ruhr region alone.

Shaping the National Conversation

Since 2021, I've been a member of the Kernteam of Hochschulforum Digitalisierung, Germany's central platform for higher education in the digital age, jointly run by Stifterverband, CHE, and the German Rectors' Conference. I publish there regularly on AI and higher education, and I've participated multiple times in HFD's peer-to-peer consulting program, where teams of experts support selected universities in their digital transformation: hands-on, institution-specific, practice-oriented.

Where I Am Now

Today I split my time between four missions:

1. Universität Witten/Herdecke · As Project Lead Transformation, I'm back at my alma mater, helping one of Germany's most innovative universities redesign its learning approach for the age of AI.
2. TransformEducation · Building and piloting the AI learning platform that puts my convictions about agency, coaching, and learning science into running code.
3. Zukunftsallianz für Transformative Bildung · I co-founded this alliance of education experts from German universities with a bold vision: by 2030, half of German universities should be testing transformative learning concepts.
4. Speaking, consulting, and advising · I work with universities, ministries, foundations, and organizations worldwide who are ready to move beyond talking about transformation and start doing it.

On Stage Worldwide

I've delivered keynotes and workshops at over 50 events in more than 10 countries. Highlights include:

• TEDxHeidelberg · "Curiosity — the Force to Transform Education"
• University:Future Festival · every edition since its inception
• Falling Walls Science Summit, Berlin
• OEB Global (Online Educa Berlin)
• Stanford University, USA
• UIIN Conference, Helsinki
• Keynotes and workshops in Dubai, Rwanda, Colombia, and across Europe

What Drives Me

I believe the current model of higher education (lectures, exams, credits) is a relic of industrialization that no longer serves students or society. AI is accelerating this mismatch dramatically. We don't need incremental improvements. We need institutions bold enough to redesign learning from first principles: centered on curiosity, agency, real-world challenges, and human connection.

I've seen it work. I've built it. And I know it can scale.

If you're ready to transform how your institution teaches and learns, let's talk.