The University of Bremen has scored a success in a competition launched by the German Government and the Federal States called “Social Mobility via Education: Open Universities”. Its project proposal bearing the title “konstruktiv – Anchoring a consequent orientation to new target groups at the University of Bremen” impressed the jury to such an extent that it was agreed to grant the University funding in an amount of more than 2.9 million euros for its implementation. Under the leadership of Dr. Petra Boxler from the University’s Academy of Further Education, the project will run from August 2014 till January 2018.
What’s it about?
Educational biographies are becoming increasingly more variegated. Nowadays, periods of study, work, further education and time spent looking after members of the family are combined in many different ways. In order to take account of people in different phases of their life course, and more and more often with migration backgrounds, we need to find suitable offers of study programs and further education. “The funding will make it possible for us to customize our programs for students and further education to fit the didactical and organizational needs arising from the increasing complexity of educational biographies and individuals’ subsequent academic aims”, says the leader of the Academy for Further Education enthusiastically. Precisely this is the goal foreseen by the creators of the initiative “Social Mobility via Education” – to increase individual educational opportunities for everyone.
Who are the target groups?
The project will focus especially on people with academic degrees who are now pursuing working careers or looking after family members, academics returning to the labor market, and people holding qualifications obtained abroad. Special part-time (continuing education) Master and post-graduate programs will be established in the areas of informatics, production engineering, and nursing care. As Petra Boxler explains, these subjects were chosen because “There are job vacancies in these fields within the region and other parts of Germany." To make it possible for people with strongly variegated educational backgrounds to participate, the new study programs will be made as flexible as possible, among other things by means of so-called module building blocks. It is planned to make the new concepts developed within the context of “konstruktiv” permanent features of studies at the University of Bremen.
By the way: The University of Art and the Universities of Applied Sciences in Bremen and Bremerhaven were also winners in the call “Social Mobility via Education: Open Universities”. The success of the Bremen institutions was due not least to the prior cooperation between the University of Bremen and the universities of applied sciences in the “Open Universities” project initiated by the State of Bremen and financed through the Pact for Higher Education.
If you would like to receive more information on this topic, please contact:
University of Bremen
Academy for Further Education
Dr. Petra Boxler
Phone: 0421 218 61600
email: boxlerprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
http://www.wettbewerb-offene-hochschulen-bmbf.de