Kick-off event for the design of the future learning location Oberlausitz
On July 15, 2022, the Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs, Professor Dr. Sophia Keil, hosted the kick-off meeting of the working group for the development of our future learning location Upper Lusatia in the Senate Hall of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
The aim of the "Future Learning Location Upper Lusatia" project is to create diverse and innovative extracurricular learning spaces with future-oriented educational opportunities focused on regional development. Children and young people in particular, but also all generations, should be able to benefit from these opportunities. In terms of regional development, the attractiveness of Upper Lusatia as a location for families and young people should be increased. After all, comparable extracurricular places of learning, so-called "science centers", have so far been concentrated in urban regions and are still very rare in rural areas.
"Of course, we want to use the central and decentralized educational locations to get future students interested in the many exciting topics in our degree courses, such as the currently pressing energy issues, at an early stage," says Keil.
Until December 2025, considerable investment funds, so-called PMO funds from the party and mass organizations of the former GDR, will be made available for this purpose. These funds will be used to strengthen networking between the university and stakeholders in the region and, above all, to introduce young people to the future topics of Upper Lusatia. Four fields of action have been defined and are being collaboratively supported with concrete projects:
Workspace on campus in Zittau and Görlitz
Creation of decentralized educational locations and mobile laboratories
Extracurricular learning location of the HSZG and CASUS in Görlitz
Extracurricular learning location of the HSZG and the Institute forLow CO2 Industrial Processes of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Zittau
While fields of action one to three are still very open, there are already very specific partners and goals for the Junior Academy with the DLR_School_Lab Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz: In the future, pupils of all grades will be able to experiment with topics relating to aerospace, green engineering, nature and environmental protection as well as new technologies in the 350 m² Mandauhöfe Zittau.
Special thanks go to Franziska Schubert. The Upper Lusatian MP (Alliance 90/The Greens) secured the 5 million euros for the "Zukunftsort Oberlausitz" project.
"The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences plays a very important role in the region, especially with regard to the challenges of structural change. We need prospects for young people and the university offers a great range of opportunities. I have been following its development for quite some time now and I like the fact that this small university location is being developed with fresh energy and passion into an attractive educational location in the very east of Saxony - or: in the heart of Europe. With the 'Future Learning Location Upper Lusatia' project, it is proving this once again. The project has supra-regional appeal and will be accessible to all young people in Upper Lusatia with central and decentralized locations. The aim is to create extracurricular places of learning that, among other things, prepare young people for working life. Companies in the region will also benefit from this," says Schubert.
