About us

Origins

UNIAKTIV is a University of Duisburg-Essen initiative, whose objective is to promote citizens’ involvement amongst students and to incorporate it within the university’s curriculum. In 2005 UNIAKTIV was founded by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Stark, the director of the Laboratory for Organizational Development (OrgLab) at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Since autumn 2006 the Mercator Foundation has been supporting the project. On each campus (i.e. in Duisburg and in Essen), UNIAKTIV is represented through a contact point.

Project Outline

1. Voluntary Service

Within the scope of an accompanied voluntary involvement, students can attain important key competencies. For a certain period of time they contribute to social institutions (as they work with senior citizens, people with ill health or deficiencies, homeless people, children in schools and neighbourhoods) or to ecological or socio-cultural projects (e.g. event management). In the course of this, regional and international projects which already get the university's support (e.g. the university's Sustainable Development Group, the UNICEF Students' Group, Students in Free Enterprise) may also be utilized. If needed, the students may also get preparation and care throughout their voluntary service. An evaluation seminar secures the gathered experiences' sustainability.

Thus, students get the chance to reinforce their personal and social competencies by learning in “new” lived-in worlds. This concerns, above all, the ability to communicate and to build up relationships, to manage conflicts or to (re)solve them, to strengthen collaboration and team competencies as well as handling their own emotions and the emotions of others. A certificate documents and recognizes the students‘ commitment. Voluntary service therefore amends the qualification profile as its relevance for job applications keeps increasing.

2. Service Learning

UNIAKTIV combines professional studies with the concept of Service Learning, an attempt of which is necessary in this context: Service Learning is a concept applicable to all fields of study, which is commonly used in the United States, but relatively new to German universities. For example, business administration students can do financial controlling for community institutions or develop marketing concepts for social projects, while physics students provide a better understanding of their discipline to pupils with poor learning-results. While community partners profit from students’ know-how and labour, the students themselves can practise their knowledge in real-life and develop social and personal competencies as well as civic values. Additionally, Service Learning Projects promote the theory-practice-transfer and strengthen the civil society’s structures in the region.

Background

Not only do Universities teach expertise in various disciplines, they also have the duty to generate a meaning of social responsibility and a sense of community for and with society’s future managers and leaders. Therefore, several top universities at home and abroad have opened to promote and to recognize civic engagement, already during the period of studies, next to traditional and other new key competencies. UNIAKTIV has grasped this development and thus makes a special contribution towards high-quality teaching at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Furthermore, in respect to sustainability, UNIAKTIV promotes the university’s societal cooperation skills in the region.