WTS opens Research Institute in Augsburg

The WTS Group continues to expand its involvement with universities: In cooperation with the Chair of Business Taxation at the University of Augsburg, the advisory company opens the 'WTS Research Institute'. The aim of the institute in the Fuggerstadt is the scientific investigation of tax questions and problems as well as the publication of literature first opinions and case studies. The Research Institute shares rooms with a co-working space for employees of the group and a purpose-built lecture hall for students of the chair. In this way, the innovative concept promotes an optimal transfer of knowledge between practice, research and teaching.

An initial idea became reality within a very short time. CEO Fritz Esterer, together with WTS partner Dominik Lipp and Prof. Dr. Robert Ullmann, holder of the Chair of Business Taxation at the University of Augsburg, launched the WTS Research Institute. A future lab that connects science and studies with business and the world of work.

The WTS Research Institute houses a flexible co-working space, several doctoral student offices, a lecture hall and a roof terrace with a view of the university campus. The revolutionary thing: for the first time, students of business taxation, doctoral students at the university and employees of an international consulting firm are learning and working together under one roof. This spatial proximity enables an intensive and at the same time informal exchange between professionals and students.

Another highlight is the lecture hall, which is equipped with state-of-the-art technology. As soon as it starts regular operation at the beginning of 2022, up to 40 students will attend lectures there several times a week. In the room next door, they will then have the opportunity to exchange ideas with WTS employees about real tasks from their everyday work as consultants. "In this way, theory is supported with practical examples and becomes more tangible for the students," comments Dominik Lipp, partner at WTS in Munich and co-initiator of the project.

The project offers young talents the chance to take an unbiased look at the working world of a tax advisor, to make contacts and to gain initial practical experience. Particularly at the current time, when the tax advisor's job description is undergoing major changes in the course of digitalisation, the project offers a real opportunity to minimise the gap between theory and practice and to optimally prepare the tax advisors of tomorrow for their future tasks. "We are very much looking forward to this new form of exchange between practice, research and teaching," says Prof. Dr. Robert Ullmann, co-sponsor of the project.

WTS will strive for and push further regional academic cooperations at its locations throughout Germany in order to actively shape the change in the advisor's professional profile.