Social Work is the largest degree program at the HSZG. The more than 700 students at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Görlitz make up a good quarter of the entire university. "We're still very few and far between," Mandy Schulze laughs. She is pleased that she can now change that. She studied business administration, sociology and educational science in Mannheim, Heidelberg and Berlin. She completed her doctorate on continuing education courses at universities at Humboldt University in Berlin, is a co-founder of the Perspektive³ association and a member of the editorial team of the magazine Hochschule und Weiterbildung (ZHWB). 

The future of higher education

The topic of higher education has long been part of her life. "For me, personal and professional experience has a lot to do with continuing education," she says. One thing is immediately apparent when talking to Mandy Schulze: she questions existing structures. She spontaneously spins a completely logical connection between the boundaries of university development and physical boundaries. "What is a university, what is further education, what is science? Boundaries are fluid. Also an issue - now that the borders are closed again." 

She has just co-edited the volume Hochschulweiterbildung als Forschungsfeld - Kritische Bestandsaufnahmen und Perspektiven. The subject area of continuing education in higher education is systematically presented on the basis of current research findings and development needs are made visible. "What is currently being researched? Where is no one actually looking? Where are the topics that are not being scrutinized?" This is Schulze's field of research. She knows her way around here.

"I find the development of universities of applied sciences really exciting," says Schulze. "The HSZG has an incredible range of subjects. Unfortunately, there are fewer students on technical courses. In contrast, in the social sciences in Görlitz alone, over 400 percent apply for 90 places on the social work course. Around 100 are enrolled. The course is always filled to the last place." Schulze is passionate about the subject of higher education. But not because of an economic factor: What makes a university a university when it comes to offering continuing education? The awarding of academic titles? It's not just about gaining qualifications. "Do we get professionally qualified people to the university to develop new things with their experience and theoretical analysis? And how permeable is the university in contrast to vocational training? Where does vocational training end and academic education begin? What should such a program look like?"

"The virologists in the current coronavirus pandemic have networked; that's modern. Not snatching each other's masks or closing borders. Instead, they are joining forces and sharing expertise."

Continuing academic education as a communication channel

What role can the university play in the future? "Do we offer what companies need? Through degree courses and disciplinary thinking?" Schulze says that this doesn't work (anymore), but it is still done this way. That would be particularly exciting in continuing education. "If you ask - what kind of staff will you need in your company in five years' time? - no one can answer that. We wrongly assume constants, but everything is much more dynamic." She says: "If you had asked people fifteen years ago whether they wanted to check their emails from anywhere or watch movies on their phone, they would have said, nope, I can look it up at home. Then the iPhone came along. And everyone wanted portable information. "Think in terms of solutions," says Schulze, "not products."

Since 2015, there have been more first-year students than first-year vocational trainees. However, degree courses are only partially geared towards the current job market because academic knowledge is more independent, says Schulze. "More and more is being academized (such as childhood education) - and that's not a bad thing, because it creates fields of research." Further academic training is a communication channel for this. "The virologists in the current coronavirus pandemic have networked; that's modern. Not snatching each other's masks or closing borders. Instead, they are joining forces and sharing expertise." She also means allowing different expertise, the opinions of economists, social work experts and IT specialists.

The last Coke in the desert

Schulze says that this outdated idea of: "We as a university hold the knowledge, send it into the desert where people are thirsty for knowledge, and then we tell the companies how to do it", no longer applies. Large companies have long been conducting their own research in their fields. 

Apparently, it's not the one idea - it's the practice that needs people like Mandy Schulze and her practical knowledge. "We should be aware of the role of a regional university. And together," says Schulze. Continuing academic education is one way of dealing with problems and uncertainties. "We know what's going on regionally." Opening up universities to continuing education degrees can establish modern science - "That's my favorite topic," says Schulze. "That's where the future lies."

It sounds as if Schulze already has the solution. "How can we solve problems without having a solution? What we have to do is put on our theoretical glasses and look at things from different perspectives with a transdisciplinary view and clarify them." The university must ask itself: what is our mission - what social problems do we want to solve with the university?

Oberlausitz-Transfer

One question follows the next. And these are big questions that Schulze asks herself. How do we get science into society and vice versa? What does practice-based knowledge look like? How can universities address social issues and transfer knowledge? What makes academic continuing education an academic continuing education? What should such a program look like? And in the end, perhaps the most important question is: How can this fit in with our socio-ecological system in Upper Lusatia?  

In 1988, Zittau's former engineering university was granted the status of a technical university, and had previously been granted the right to award doctorates. It lost this again with the reorganization of the Saxon higher education landscape after reunification and was downgraded to a university of applied sciences. "That does something to the region," says Schulze. She herself left her home shortly after reunification. In 2010, Schulze and her fellow campaigners founded the 3rd Generation East Germany initiative. They were awarded the Gustav Heinemann Citizens' Prize in 2013 and the Theodor Heuss Medal in 2020. With Perspektive3, Mandy Schulze wants to support the participation of her generation in the change in East Germany - to enter into a learning process, into a dialog. 

How do we position ourselves as a university of applied sciences in the higher education landscape?" "How far do we want to open up? How can we talk about corporate structures and social conditions in our region? We need to enter into a relationship, into a discourse, says Schulze. "And not just by someone standing at the front and explaining their scientific studies with a PowerPoint presentation. We need to find other ways of talking to each other and working in a more application-oriented way." 

Studying to become yourself

A certain teaching basis is needed, says Schulze. "Of course we have to convey certain perspectives from a specialist context in our teaching. That's also what I mean by science." Her students should also develop a certain attitude. "I will argue with them," but that is not a fixed educational canon. "The students don't just need me as an input provider who stuffs them full of knowledge. They need someone to ask questions with them." It takes those seven semesters, says Schulze, "until you grab your topic, write your Bachelor's thesis and pour everything you've learned into it. In the end, someone has made themselves their own by developing their own perspective."

"The students don't just need me to give them input and fill them with knowledge. They need someone to ask questions with them."

Mandy Schulze says, "I enrich them with my perspective on networks." In addition to teaching, she is always dealing with and researching her topics on the side - she is looking forward to this exciting time of transformation processes. "Just like at the time of reunification, structures have broken away and new ones are emerging." Schulze encourages people to make use of this (uncertain) time: what is available for community work? How much of my knowledge can I use? And what not? Who do I coordinate with, or not? "We can't say what will happen next. It could all be completely different. There is an uncertainty that we have to endure. A learning process in modern times - and it has to have a bit of pepper and chili!"

The interview was conducted by Sophie Herwig