Since 1999, Paderborn University has held holiday programs on campus for children of staff and students during the school holidays.
These programs are designed to satisfy the criterion set out by the “Family-friendly University” initiative aimed at helping staff and students with children juggle work/studies and childcare. The camps also help get children of university parents interested in, or help consolidate their existing interest in STEM subjects.

The activities on offer vary and cover a broad spectrum of chemistry, physics, electrical engineering and art-based activities. Parents can register their “little researchers” for the sessions that best match their specific interests. The camps thereby offer children the chance to experience the university not just as the place where their parents go to work or study, but also as a family-friendly institution with much to discover, explore and learn.
Since 2011, the university’s holiday camp programs have also included external activities, with participating children now also able to enjoy experiential education and forest school activities. In summer 2015, the “coolMINT” schools STEM lab, based at the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (HNF), became the latest addition to Paderborn University’s holiday camp fun.

The holiday programs are held in the second week of the Easter and autumn holidays and in the first and second week of the summer holidays. The camps’ activities are aimed at children aged between 6 and 12.