Student Engagement
As students, you know best which ideas bring a breath of fresh air to the Viadrina, where improvement, networking or more transparency are needed, and where you would like to shape everyday student life. How to start? With whom to discuss ideas? What should one pay attention to? Who are suitable partners and what does it actually require to implement and complete a project? Where can you as a student actively raise your voice and participate in decision-making processes of Viadrina?
We support you with courses, personal counselling and access to information, material and people to help you find your way around the university structure, to network and to be able to formulate and bring up your demands, for example in one of Viadrina's student groups and initiatives or with a new idea.
Since November 2023, as a new member of the European University Network ERUA, the Viadrina is taking further measures with a special focus on fostering student engagement, funded by the European Commission.
- TRAINING & SUPPORT
- Viadrina Peer-Tutoring Certificate Program
- Seminar "Lernende Organisation?! Die Viadrina als Reallabor"
- Kick-Off fürs Studium
- ACTIVITIES & EVENTS
- European Reform University Alliance (ERUA) - Student Community
- DISCOURSE & REFLECTION
- University Future Festival
- RESOURCES & MATERIAL
- Links & Readings
In accordance with its Mission Statement for teaching (in German) and with "education for sustainable development", the Viadrina considers it important to enable students to take responsibility in society, to orient themselves and reflect critically in the complex world, so that they can engage together with others and participate in decision-making processes. At the Center for Teaching and Learning, we actively involve students as partners in our work as well as in the design of our offers. We also support students in developing relevant skills and encourage them to implement their own projects.
TRAINING & SUPPORT
Viadrina Peer-TutoringThe Viadrina Peer Tutoring certificate programme qualifies you to support students (peer-to-peer) in their studies. You get training in didactics, facilitation, consultatation and project management skills, with a focus on one area of key competences. The certificate allows you to apply as a peer tutor (paid student position) at our Center, where you mediate between students and the university in the areas of teaching and studying, and develop further our activities. Depending on the needs, you provide support in (online) teaching, act as a contact person for students, give workshops, academic writing consultation and/or develop projects. We also involve you in our (international) network activities as well as in conferences, lectures and publications. |
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Praxisseminar "Lernende Organisation?! Die Viadrina als Reallabor" (in German)This practical seminar brings you together with (other) students who are engaged at university, who are planning to get involved or who simply want to gain an insight into how the university works. With a focus on student participation, we address questions that affect the university and thus also students as the largest status group. We meet internal and external actors and explore the university "from inside". You also have the opportunity to use the seminar specifically as a space within your studies to work more intensively on an issue of your already existing involvement - accompanied by feedback and with access to material as well as relevant contact persons.
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Kick-Off fürs Studium (in German)The Kick-Off Week enables new Viadrina students get to know Frankfurt (Oder) as a place to study, the European University Viadrina and future fellow students. Participants from all degree programmes are equipped with the tools of project management and teamwork for successful project work. |
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ACTIVITIES & EVENTS
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January 2023 Three online Workshops with students from Viadrina and ERUA - discussing the needs, ideas and wishes for the upcoming ERUA funding phase 31.1.2023 Submission of joint ERUA Application to the European Commission (including students' proposals developed during the workshops) |
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Various Online-Meetings with ERUA students, e.g. 9.3.2023:
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30.-31.3.2023 Student Engagement Seminar at Roskilde University (Denmark). |
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May 2023 ERUA Hackathon organized by the University of the Aegean (Greece). |
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June 2023 European Students’ Assembly (ESA) and
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21.-22.6. 2023 ERUA Student Engagement Seminar at Universität Konstanz
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3.7.2023 Online Meeting with 25 Students from 8 European University Alliances (representing 78 universities in Europe, organized by YUFE's Student Forum): exchange on experiences and challenges for students in European Alliances |
⇒ More information about the European University Alliances students meeting (external link YUFE). |
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5.-7.7.2023 Annual Conference of the Critical Edge Alliance in Ifrane (Morocco).
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11.-13.10.2023 ERUA Summit
ERUA-Students met at the Summit 2023 to discuss their role in ERUA as well as communication and organisation of the next joint activities. |
Viadrina-Delegation: Elena Schmid and Husam Jafare (student assistants for Student Engagement), Gabriela Pawlowicz and Nicole Marut (AStA) with Vice President Prof. Dr. Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast, CP-Director Agnieszka Bronczyk (missing on the picture), PD Dr. Carolin Leutloff-Grandits, Dr. Geny Piotti (research department) and Niki Kasis (Center for Teaching and Learning). |
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26.-27.10.2023 ERUA Manifesto Workshop in Paris, France Discussions on activism at universities, professional orientation, artificial intelligence, digital universities, universities as spaces, teaching and learning and much more merge into a manifesto on the future of the university/ies. |
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7.-10.12.2023 European Student Union Conference in Coimbra, Portugal Gabriela Pawlowicz and Nicole Marut (AStA) take part in the conference representing ERUA. |
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11.-12.12.2023 ERUA Kick-Off Meeting in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
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--- more Info coming soon --- Meanwhile, please contact the team via erua-students@europa-uni.de, in case you have any questions or, if you wish to get involved in the ERUA activities or become part of an international team consisting of students and staff promoting student engagement and a variety of other topics (research, teaching & learning, sustainability, social entrepeneurship...) on a European Level (an beyond).
Screenshot of the first official Online Student Engagement Team Meeting on December 21st, 2023 with 15 students and 7 staff from Viadrina, New Bulgarian University, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Poland), University of Paris 8 (France), Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), University of Macerata (Italy), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), University of the Aegean (Greece). |
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DISCOURSE & REFLECTION
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Niki Kasis and Elena Schmid contributed with their Lightning Talk "Unboxing University - Studierende als Changemaker!?" (Youtube, in German) to the discussion of Shaping Universities Together at the University Future Festival 2023. |
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ERUA Summit 2023, Roskilde UniversityOn October 12th, 2023 Niki Kasis and Elena Schmid talked at the ERUA Summit in Roskilde about student engagement and democratic participation in Higher Education Institutions and introduced approaches on how Universities and Teaching can forster student agency. |
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In case you are interested in presenting your ideas or experiences beyond Viadrina in a broader discourse about the future of higher education, do not hesitate to contact us. There are plenty of opportunities to speak up and we are happy to support you in this. |
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RESOURCES & MATERIAL
- Dippelhofer, Sebastian (2004). Partizipation von Studierenden an Hochschulpolitik Sekundäranalytische Befunde des 8. Konstanzer Studierendensurveys. (Hefte zur Bildungs- und Hochschulforschung, 41). Universität Konstanz, Geisteswissenschaftliche Sektion, FB Geschichte und Soziologie, Arbeitsgruppe Hochschulforschung.
- Ebel, Kathrin (2022). Student Representatives’ Perceived Effectiveness of their Engagement in European University Alliances’ Governance Structures. MS thesis.
- Initiative Cookbook – Homemade Civic Engagement – An Introduction into Project Management (Theodor Heuss Kolleg & MitOst 2015).
- Empowerment for self-responsible initiative. Help your learners to discover their vision and to turn it into concrete civic engagement (englisch, Theodor Heuss Kolleg & MitOst 2016).
- Kay, Janice; Dunne, Elisabeth; Hutchinson, James (2010). Rethinking the values of higher education - students as change agents?
- Klemenčič, Manja (2017). From student engagement to student agency: Conceptual considerations of European policies on student-centered learning in higher education. Higher education policy 30 (2017): 69-85.
- Raffaele, Cristina; Rediger, Philipp (2021). Die Partizipation Studierender als Kriterium der Qualitätssicherung in Studium und Lehre. Institut für Hochschulforschung (HoF) an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.
- Warwick, Paul (2016). An integrated leadership model for leading education for sustainability in higher education and the vital role of students as change agents. In: Management in Education, 30 (3), 105-111.
...more coming soon
