A NEW MODEL OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT – THE LEUPHANA EXPERIENCE

Due to the Bologna Process, which aims at a comparable organization of higher education throughout Europe, the German system of higher education has gone through various changes. Along with the implementation of a credit point system, there has been a move towards undergraduate and graduate education that provides the students with internationally recognized degrees.
The majority of German institutions of higher education have maintained the traditional organization of studies, which implies that each faculty or discipline organizes their own education. Nevertheless, some institutions have initiated central units dedicated to the organization of education across disciplines. Among them is the Leuphana University of Lueneburg, which has established a College in the Anglo-American tradition. The College accompanies the students in their journey towards a bachelor degree and encourages them to develop an open and inquisitive mind that questions assumptions and looks for solutions beyond the limits of disciplines. The structure created at Leuphana University is unique in Germany. All students start their studies with a so-called Leuphana Semester, which is intended as an introduction into scholarship and scholarly thinking. By combining studies in the humanities and their history, the responsibility of science, and scientific methods both within and across disciplines, this semester shapes the transition from school to university learning, supports independent thinking and opens an inter- and transdisciplinary stance on science. Starting with the second semester, the students continue in their respective majors and minors, but simultaneously participate in Complementary Studies. Here, they acquire additional competencies to their major and minor in six perspectives (e.g., Art & Aesthetics, Language & Culture, and Understanding & Changing). Leuphana Semester and Complementary Studies together account for one third of the bachelor studies. The combination of Leuphana Semester, major, minor, and Complementary Studies supports the idea of an integrated curriculum, which is one of the key principles of the educational model at Leuphana contributing to the personal development, praxis related skills, and social responsibility of the students.
Within a framework of the Innovation Incubator, a unique project financed by the European Union, various activities for the further development of the College have been initiated. Among them are the Reflection of Studies, which aims at critical evaluation of students’ choices of subjects, and the College Studies in Praxis, which aims at creating stronger ties to the professional life.
The Innovation Incubator provides a team of researchers with the opportunity to work on questions related to empirical educational research, e.g.:
- Does the educational model offered by Leuphana contribute to the students’ personality development in a different way than the educational model of the rather traditional German universities?
- Which competencies are developed or strengthened by the Complementary Studies?
- What is “good teaching” and what is the value of traditional lectures in an era which favors group work and interaction in smaller seminar groups?
We would like to present a poster which consists of an introduction to the educational model at Leuphana University, a description of the projects of the Innovation Incubator, and first results of the current empirical studies concerned with the Leuphana model.