New cooperation between business school and university

Agreement Allows 'Service Learning' New Year

It is a pilot project that does not yet exist in this form in Germany. In the future, the Graf-Stauffenberg Business School and the Professorship for Business Education at the Otto-Friedrich-University will work closely together to launch the "Service Learning" project in the training of business educators. Senior Study Director Martin Mattausch and Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Gerholz, together with the mayor and educational officer Dr. Christian Lange signed a cooperation agreement.

The agreement is intended to consolidate and deepen cooperation between the business school and business education in the long term. The aim is to improve educational processes through an intensive connection between experiences in school practice and new findings and methods of university research. The first cooperation project is "Service Learning", in which contents of the syllabus are connected with commitment in the region. "Service Learning" starts in the school year 2017/2018 and is scientifically supported by the Professorship for Business Education. "For example, students are developing a marketing concept for attracting volunteers to charitable organizations. While in the past the content was being appropriated in the classroom, it is now being organized through real community-based charitable projects, "explains Headmaster Mattausch, using the concrete example. "By doing so, we link school content even more closely to social issues. For the business school we are doing pioneering work."

Professor Gerholz is looking forward to the exciting new research project whose basic idea comes from the USA. "Service learning is a new didactic format for German-speaking countries. The students deal with value issues of civil society, which can contribute to personality development, "emphasizes Gerholz and shows the relevance of the scientific monitoring of such processes. "Through our research, we can contribute to how 'service learning' can be effectively implemented in everyday teaching."

Mayor Dr. Christian Lange thanked all participants for this Germany-wide pioneering role in the education sector. "I am delighted that the cooperation partners are working together in the area of ​​VET and related research, in particular the design of teaching-learning processes and the organization of educational processes."

Further information for media representatives:

Contact for content queries:
Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Gerholz
Professor of Business Education at the University of Bamberg
Tel .: 0951 / 863-2725
karl-heinz.gerholz(at)uni-bamberg.de

Media Contact:
Andrea Grodel
Employee at the Press Office of the City of Bamberg
Tel .: 0951 / 87-1824
andrea.grodel(at)stadt.bamberg.de 

Patricia Achter
PR Officer at the University of Bamberg
Tel .: 0951 / 863-1146
patricia.achter(at)uni-bamberg.de