Organisational matters, Studies and teaching

"We are faced with multiple crises. Digitalization, ecological issues and increasing complexity are shaping the topics in teaching and research. Traditional job profiles must be supplemented by new skills in order to be able to shape a transformation in business, politics and society, but also in the church. With our study offer at the School of Transformation and Sustainability, we want to create perspectives that are meaningful and value-oriented in line with our University’s profile", explains KU President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien. The new faculty, she said, was deliberately not designed as a finished product, but must be understood an ongoing process.

The School of Transformation and Sustainability builds on the previous Faculty of Religious Education and will be located at both KU campuses in Eichstätt and Ingolstadt. At the STS, researchers and lecturers from the university sector as well as from the higher educational field cooperate equally. "In the spirit of transformative science, the new faculty aims to accompany the profound social, political, ecological, and religious changes not only in teaching but also in research and transfer. In our STS, we want to link approaches and initiatives from all subjects and faculties that deal with societal challenges and transformation processes with their specific subject focus. In addition, both regional and global networking play a significant role", explains Prof. Dr. Harald Pechlaner, Founding Dean of the faculty. The range of topics in teaching and research on sustainability and transformation reaches from existing skills in the field of religious education to history and social sciences, psychology and mathematics, and economics.

"The interwoven and interconnected nature of transformation processes and crises requires inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration, i.e. academic research across disciplinary boundaries, interacting with stakeholders and practitioners from all relevant fields", emphasizes Pechlaner further. It is true that this requires a broad and deep understanding and knowledge of the individual sciences. He said that most of the questions we face in our globalized world could not be answered without inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. Pechlaner describes: "Cross-sector collaborations allow us to combine fundamental and applied knowledge, artistic-cultural education, and practical application skills in developing socially robust, sustainable ideas and solutions." Therefore, research at STS will deliberately have a project-oriented character. A so-called "Sounding Board” will serve as a link to the other faculties of the KU and, as a committee, ensure permeability to researchers beyond STS. In addition, a ‘Fellow program’ will be established as a permanent platform for integrating external expertise to the faculty.

Students, in turn, are offered institutionalized opportunities to be involved in the ongoing development of the faculty through the Student Board. This body, as the full student assembly of STS, is an integral part of the faculty structure. "The STS study program is aimed at young people who are asking more questions about the meaning and impact of their actions and reflecting on why they should study in the first place. We want to impart future skills and thus open up perspectives for work in the church sector, NGOs, associations and educational institutions in the field of sustainability and beyond", describes Prof. Dr. Simone Birkel. The professor of religious education is particularly concerned with questions of education for sustainable development and is also responsible for the two-semester certificate program "Transformation – Orientation – Future" that will start for the first time this winter semester. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary courses teach, among other things, the basics of transformation and sustainability science. But ethical reflections, project management, intercultural experiences, leadership skills, project work, and coaching are also part of the curriculum. It is planned that students of the certificate program can then seamlessly continue in the study program of the new Bachelor's degree in "Transformation – Sustainability – Ethics", which is to start at the KU in the 2024/25 winter semester. Students of this Bachelor's program will be able to choose between the thematic focus of either "Sustainability" or "Applied Theology". Certificate graduates are also free to study any other degree program at the KU that is compatible with the skill set and content of the completed certificate.

The new digital Master's program in "Transformation and Sustainable Living Spaces – Reshape Tourism”, which the KU is offering together with the Deggendorf University of Applied Sciences, the Kempten University of Applied Sciences and the Munich University of Applied Sciences, will also start in the coming winter semester at STS. This Master’s program approaches the major crises of our time and the transformation processes in economy, society and politics. In tourism, the focus has long been exclusively on the needs of guests. Tourism can be an agent of socio-ecological transformation through regional network competence. Sustainable business models and ways of traveling can make a significant contribution to social development. The new Master's program aims to impart the relevant skills for this. Innovative teaching with a special focus on research-oriented transfer is an important pillar in this context.

In addition, the STS continues the existing continuing education program "Sustainable Education and Socio-Ecological Transformation in Church Institutions" – as well as the successful cooperation with the Jesuit Worldwide Learning network, in which the KU offers continuing education for talented young people from poverty-stricken areas, social hot spots and crisis regions. Participants meet regularly at on-site learning centers with internet access to share ideas with each other and with their supervisors. A learning platform that was specially developed for JWL provides the online framework for contact with KU lecturers and opportunities for exchange in the "global classroom" with international students. Participants live in Afghanistan, Kenya, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Iraq, among other places.