As Vice President for International Affairs, his work will focus on international affairs pertaining to the German university system. Since 2008 the HRK has had an internationalization strategy, which was developed under the direction of Lenzen. The aim of the strategy is to further qualify its member universities for the globalization process in higher education and to actively shape it. The process is characterized by high variability of trends, uncertainties, and risks, but also by competition and opportunities to compete.

"The internationalization of a university today includes the university as a whole, from the administration to student exchange," says Lenzen. "Accordingly, we have jointly developed and adopted a strategy that combines the two main objectives of HRK – representing the interests of our member institutions and providing service – while simultaneously integrating a third one, policy making."

Against this background, Lenzen considers it most important to succeed in getting more German universities included in international rankings and ratings. Further, he sees the need for HRK to introduce a service for the internationalization of German institutions of higher education and for the establishment of additional foreign branch offices representing German universities abroad. Examples of the latter include the Science House, currently being planned for Tokyo under the lead management of the University Rectors' Conference, and the HRK office in Brussels. All of the above are Lenzen's most important objectives for his second two-year term.