What happens, and why?
New University Structure (WdU)
The university is reorganizing its departments: The number of departments will be reduced from 16 to 11. In addition, the university is introducing so-called “thematic hubs.” The working title is “Further Development of the University Structure,” or WdU for short.
A Shared Content Management System
Until now, each department has had its own content management system (Typo3). To make it easier for the websites to adapt to the WdU transition, the departmental websites will be consolidated into a shared content management system (also Typo3).
Scope of the Transition
The consolidation is a complex process and will be carried out only once for all departments (almost) simultaneously. In addition, the pages will be reorganized to align with the new departmental structure. And the departments’ main pages must be updated. All of this takes time.
Timeline and Launch
That is why we are already beginning this process now (mid-October 2026), even though the launch of the updated department websites cannot take place until March 1, 2027, at the earliest. The date for a department—along with all its working groups—to go live will be determined by its dean’s office. The latest possible date is June 30, 2028.
Live and Staging Websites in Parallel
Until the updated pages go live, two websites will exist in parallel for all departments and working groups: the live website and thestaging website, where changes are developed by WdU. When the site goes live, the staging website will replace the live website.
Dual Maintenance by Editorial Teams
The editorial teams are responsible for ensuring that, during this period, changes made to the live websites (e.g., a page for a new employee) are also implemented on the staging website. There is no way to automatically transfer changes to the staging website (dual maintenance).
Working Groups and Projects Also Affected
The pages for workinggroups, projects, etc.—which require few changes—are alsoaffected by this dual maintenance. However, because they are hosted on the same content management system as the departmental pages, they will be migrated along with them.
Phase 3
Editorial Work
When: starting approximately mid-November 2026
Duration: varies by department , no earlier than March 1, 2027, and no later than June 30, 2028
Who: dean’s offices + all departmental editorial teams
- Editorial structure of the department main pages
- Correction of any copying errors
- Ongoing maintenance of the live website
- Relaunch date to be coordinated with the RHRZ
The department will remain in place
Affected: Biology , Chemistry, Computer Science, Electronics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Economics
- Maintenance of the entire website
- Editorial adjustments to the main pages
- The domain will remain the same or be updated
- Websites for new student groups, projects, and degree programs will be integrated into the main website
- Redirect protocol
Maintain search engine visibility!
During the restructuring, preserving as many URLs as possible should be the top priority.
Due to multiple restructurings of the RPTU websites in recent years, we have already lost visibility in search engines—any further unnecessary changes to URLs will exacerbate this effect.
The editorial teams will therefore maintain a redirect log during the consolidation, which must be submitted collectively via the dean’s offices upon the relaunch.
What do the editorial departments have to do?
- Please continue to update your content on the live site as usual.
- While your live web pages are being copied, the backend will be temporarily locked for editors. Thank you for your patience.
- Check our announcements above the backend login, our mailing list, and our news section to find out when your website was copied.
- Make a note of all important changes you make to your live pages from now on so that you can replicate them later in the staging system.
- Please wait until we have completed our work on the staging system. You will be informed via the notifications mentioned above on how to access your staging pages.
- Please check your web pages on the staging system now. They should be nearly identical to the live pages. Correct any errors that may have occurred during the copying process.
- Now implement the changes on the staging system that you have made on the live system since the copy was made.
- From now on, please make all changes to the live system on the staging system as well.
- Dean’s Offices: Adapt the main pages to the new structure.
- Working groups that have been relocated: Check your content for references to and links with your previous department and correct them.
- If you make changes to your site map, be aware of any changes to the URLs and keep a record of them until the site goes live.
- Check with your dean’s office to find out when the department’s website is scheduled to go live. Until then, maintain both websites: live and staging.
Where can I find out the latest information?
We'll keep you informed throughout the process in several ways:
- in the news section on the Typo3 Hub
- via the lists.rptu.de/wws/info/rz-typo3redakteure mailing list
- via the dashboard in your backend
and on the page you’re currently reading, we provide a general overview of the process.
Feel free to share the link to this page: https://rptu.de/s/wduweb