University of Freiburg Joins ‘University Network for Social Responsibility’

‘Our society is faced with great political, economic, ecological, and social challenges. In its mission statement, the University of Freiburg therefore formulates the objective of taking on responsibility for society and the environment through research and teaching and initiating the necessary exchange processes for this. Participation in the network is a further element for realizing this objective’, says Prof. Dr. Michael Schwarze, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at the University of Freiburg.

Participation in the network is beneficial for the Service Learning Department at the Center for Key Qualifications (ZfS) and its further development. In service learning, students of all faculties use the opportunity to get involved in community organizations and associations and to work on solving real problems in four fields of application: interculturality and migration, sustainability, environment and life sciences, democracy education, and digitalization.

The participants combine university learning with civic action. ‘They reflect on and consolidate their responsible role as a part of civil society. The students experience how self-efficacy in the context of their involvement can bring about changes at various levels’, says Anette Bender, who heads the Service Learning Department together with her colleague Jessica Stihl.

In addition, the Service Learning Department contributes to interdisciplinary and institutional networking on campus as well as to mutual transfer with the region. The ZfS has built up a network with more than 30 associations, initiatives, and organizations that meets regularly to exchange ideas on innovations. At the University, the Service Learning Department cooperates with Dr. Barbara Skorupinski’s course on ‘Responsibility in Civil Society’ for students of the Master of Education degree programme – the participants present their results from the course at a joint final event and discuss ethical issues that arise in the fields of application.

At the moment, the ZfS is collaborating with individual academic departments to develop a programme for discipline-specific service learning: Teachers can integrate the format into their teaching by combining their research questions and teaching topics with specific concerns from civil society or from associations.’ This further development is another area in which the “University Network for Social Responsibility” and future exchange with other universities can generate important impulses for the University of Freiburg’, emphasizes Jessica Stihl.

Membership also provides important opportunities for exchange for the Sustainability Certificate team, entrepreneurship actors, and everyone interested in transfer. All members of the University, especially teachers, have the opportunity to get involved in the HBdV working groups, for example in order to promote quality development in the area of transfer- and practice-oriented teaching formats and implement the results at the University.