The Concept: Studying between Supply and Demand

Is there a program that is consistently made up of the students` interests? The StudentStudies at Zeppelin University open up such an area. This is the name of a radically demand-oriented area of possibilities of a special kind – for our students and by our students. What becomes possible depends exclusively on the students´ own initiative and power of persuasion. Hence the StudentStudies are subject to different rules than the supply-oriented formats of the curriculum. In the context of StudentStudies students thus can follow their own questions, projects, and passions – in a self-organized and self-dependent way - that can not be systematically covered by the bachelor and master curricula. There are no limitations – neither regarding content nor regarding organization - so that the StudentStudies also develop into a place of multidisciplinary teaching, where students of different departments meet, implement projects and carry out research together. However, in the StudentStudies there can also be disciplines and formats that you could not find at ZU otherwise. In this way the StudentStudies can make an explicit contribution to the expansion of the multidisciplinary approach to teaching that is essential for ZU. Yet most of all the StudentStudies can answer the question »what is missing«, for »something is always missing« – in every curriculum.


Formats

Due to its tight scheduling of classes ZU reserves a whole day per week for the StudentStudies, a day when no regular classes take place. Every Wednesday – and thus a fifth of the regular time for studying – belongs to the StudentStudies and therefore the students. The formats in which StudentStudies are implemented are as individual as the contents. The form of the classes can, but does not have to, be oriented towards the classical formats of academic teaching, e.g. lectures or seminars. They can also include focus studies, research and consulting projects, studies on and trips to country-specific conferences, study trips, workshops, lectures, work in project groups, symposia, exhibitions, readings, etc.

Thus, it is possible to react immediately to current developments without having to rely on a formal change of the curriculum. Additionally, the StudentStudies are also a possible starting point for future bachelor and master theses. The offers of StudentStudies are integrated into the regular credit point system in agreement with the lecturers of the respective departments and the Study and Examination Office.


Ten Students get one academic lecture

There is only one condition: Ten students have to commit themselves to a topic, only then is ZU committed to making such an offer come true and possibly even to financing it.


The StudentStudies and the System of Bachelor and Master Programs

As one of the first universities in Germany, Zeppelin University has faced the challenge of the Bologna Process and changed the „old“ system of “Diplom” and “Magister” programs to the Anglo-Saxon logic of the bachelor and master structure. Also the StudentStudies are an element of our strategy as an answer to this required new orientation. With their principle of radical demand-orientation they react to the structures of the bachelor and master system. The StudentStudies want the best of both worlds, i.e. to combine the openness and freedom of the Diploma and Magister programs on the one hand with the tight standardization of the „new“ BA/MA systems that will be binding all over Europe in future, on the other.


Coordination | Contact

Dr. Karsten Rosemeier, Member of the Board of Directors, Phone +49 7541 6009-1131 krosemeier@zu.de