A new name, a refined concept, but still the same aim: with ‘edYOUcate@UPB’, formerly known as ‘Teaching Day’, Paderborn University aims to highlight good teaching and develop it further together. On Tuesday 23 June, participants exchanged views under the theme ‘The university as a democratic space. Learning democracy – teaching democracy’.
“With ‘edYOUcate@UPB’, we want to invite all staff and, above all, students to play an active role in shaping teaching and studies at Paderborn University and to discuss how future-oriented teaching should be structured. This year’s theme, ‘The university as a democratic space’, was particularly well-suited to this purpose and is also highly topical in socio-political terms,” says Prof. Dr Beate Flath, Vice-President for Teaching, Studies and Quality Management at Paderborn University. Dr Nerea Vöing, Head of the Educational Innovation and Higher Education Didactics Office, adds: “The new name stands for something that characterises good higher education teaching: learning and teaching as a joint creative process. The ‘YOU’ deliberately refers to everyone who brings this process to life on a daily basis – teaching staff, students and staff alike. ‘edYOUcate@UPB’ offers an opportunity to exchange experiences, discuss challenges and jointly develop new ideas for studies and teaching.” Prof. Flath and Dr. Vöing jointly opened the event.
Keynote: “Political Education in the Age of Right-wing Populism”
Prof. Dr Tim Engartner, professor of Social Sciences specialising in economic education and Deputy Director of the interdisziplinäre Centre for Empirical Teacher and Classroom Research (IZeF) at the University of Cologne, highlighted in his keynote speech the growing challenges facing fundamental democratic values and institutions. In particular, he addressed the question of what political education must achieve in dealing with right-wing populism. For him, political education means, amongst other things, fostering encounters between different groups. Right-wing populist developments, he argued, should be understood as a challenge for society as a whole, one that requires active advocacy for democratic values. Prof. Engartner emphasised that the role of universities is to integrate democracy as a way of life, rather than treating it as a purely institutional concept.
Panel discussion and workshops for interdisziplinäre exchange
During the panel discussion, moderated by Daniel Al-Kabbani from Creaversity, experts discussed the role and mission of higher education institutions in imparting democratic skills and values. “We must understand participation in terms of reciprocity, and that also means stepping outside one’s comfort zone,” said Prof. Flath. Representatives included Prof. Engartner, Prof. Dr Brigitte Kottmann from the Department of Education Studies at Paderborn University, and Mo Falke, Chair of the General Students’ Committee (AStA). Following the panel discussion, participants exchanged views in workshops, discussion groups and thematic forums, among other activities, thereby examining the central theme of ‘The university as a democratic space’ from various perspectives.
Recognition of outstanding teaching and the awarding of university teaching certificates
In addition to facilitating this exchange, ‘edYOUcate@UPB’ also served to recognise the outstanding achievements of teaching staff at Paderborn University. Three projects were awarded the ‘2025 Prize for Innovation and Quality Improvement in Teaching’: Prof. Dr Dennis Kundisch and Prof. Dr Oliver Müller received the prize for the project‘Student AI Skills in Business Administration and Economics’. Dr Carolin Waltert, Dr Nicole Satzinger and Prof. Dr Miriam Kehne were honoured for the project‘Education through Movement – Transforming Teaching Relationships to Shape Innovation in Teaching’. In addition, Dr. Max Hoffmann and Prof. Dr Lena Wessel received a grant for their project‘ProM@IK-AI – Professionalising mathematics teacher training students in the field of Computer Science through the use of AI’.
The Teaching Award for Early-Career Researchers was also presented. It recognises teaching concepts and methods of an outstanding and exemplary nature. Maike Althaus and Lea Biere received the Teaching Award for the seminar “AI and Conversational Agents: an interdisciplinary practical project” as well as the project seminar “Conversational Agents: Business Informatics and Sociology in Dialogue”. Dr Yvonne Webersen and Dr Pascal Pollmeier received an award for the interdisziplinäre class ‘From the Greenhouse Effect to Fuel Cells: Tomorrow’s Energy Supply’. In addition, the Teaching Award was presented to Jonas Spieker for the seminar ‘“What Should We Dream Of?” Music in Political Movements and Struggles – a Podcast Seminar in the summer semester 2025’. As graduates of the ‘Professional Teaching Competence in Higher Education’ qualification programme, Larissa Jäger, Nadine Michel, Philipp zur Heiden, Lea Biere, Sebastian Rost, Sven Thomas, Arnold T. Simeu, Birte de Gruisbourne and Amy Ziemniak were awarded certificates in higher education pedagogy. The aim of the programme is to offer teaching staff at universities further training content that is systematically interlinked, covering all their core teaching responsibilities.
About “edYOUcate@UPB”
‘Teaching Day’ has been held annually since 2012 and is organised by the Educational Innovation and University Pedagogy Office. This year, for the first time, the event was named ‘edYOUcate@UPB’. The event’s new title is intended to mark a step forward in its development: towards an inclusive, dialogue-oriented and participatory exchange format for the entire university. The ‘YOU’ in the name emphasises the active role of all those involved in shaping teaching.
This text was translated automatically.
