Student Initiatives

Add Action

A frequent demand is to integrate health in the regular school curriculum from early on. ADD ACTION is a first step in this direction. Our students organize a variety of activities at schools to counteract the trend to overweight among children and adolescents.

Team Emergency Medicine

Several students established this team to ensure that advanced first aid courses are available to all medical students at the preclinical stage. The team is a member of the national association of student teams for emergency medicine.

Team Medical Consultation

Medical students have been active for several years in the medical consultation team of the Medical Care Service for Refugees Bochum (MFH). In consultation hours and on-call duty they provide medical advice and referrals to refugees and migrants without residence permit and therefore without access to medical care.

Team Patient Education

Ten years ago a student study group for patient education started out as one of several in the nursing curriculum to explore the topic of “patient education – information, instruction and consultation for patients”, and to integrate theory and real issues emerging in nursing practice.

Relief project in Ruanda

To date many villages in Ruanda have no access to clean water or electricity. Many people sleep in miserable huts and dress in rags. UW/H student Christoph Lüdemann and Jules Lalande strive to help. They drill wells on site, help to erect homes, teach in schools and provide new clothes for children and adolescents.

Educational opportunities

Denkleister

Denkleister is a student consultancy with currently about 50 active members. The initiative was born early in 2009 to help the university overcome a financial emergency.

Endulen e.V. – keep it close to your heart!

Following this motto, two medical students founded this non-profit registered association in 2008, after a voluntary year at the Endulen hospital in the north of Tansania.

Expedition World

Three economics students decided that hands-on experience is better than dull theory, and went on a global expedition.

Dental student representative body

This body supports the interests of dental students and organizes a number of projects, e.g. regular continued education courses (in cooperation with Dental Depots) or soccer tournaments for students.

Future Doctors Network

The Future Doctors Network supports improvement and expansion of medical education in developing and emerging nations. Training in physical examination skills is in great demand among medical students in target countries.

Green Responsibility

Early in 2008 the initiative “Green Responsibility” began planting a row of fruit trees at the back of the campus. Other activities followed, like advertising green electricity or photovoltaics.

Introspektive.de

Introspektive.de is an independent newspaper made by Witten students for our university and the general public. What is happening where, how to assess development processes? Who are the protagonists, what are their intentions? What happens to public funds going to the university budget, and who are the heads behind the numerous student initiatives mushrooming all around me? These are only some of the topics addressed by Introspektive.de.

Congress for Family Businesses

The annual Congress for Family Businesses offers networks and expertise for this particular type of business. UW/H students host this most important and renowned congress of its kind in Europe.

Luther’s launderette

Who gives medical care to individuals who are poor, without health insurance and fall through the cracks of the medical system? UW/H medical students provide help; they identify patients requiring immediate intervention, refer them to physicians, and perform minor interventions and therapies themselves.

Medical exchange program Mazar

In the Medical Exchange Program Mazar, Afghan students are trained as tutors at UW/H, in annual alternation with UW/H students giving courses in Afghanistan to pass on their acquired medical skills.

Model United Nations

UW/H regularly sends a student team to New York to the largest UN simulation worldwide. Each student assumes the role of a delegate from a country assigned to him or her and tries to represent this country’s interests at UN conferences.

oikos Witten/Herdecke

“What is good for all must be good for me, too, and what hurts society and the environment will ultimately hurt me, too.” For oikos Witten/Herdecke, a student network for sustainable ideas and projects, this implies sustainable management and solutions which will not cause new problems tomorrow.

Online book swap shop unifloh.de

Jonas Piela and Fionn Kientzler started the online book exchange “unifloh.de” in August 2008. They combined the fleamarket principle, i.e. easy purchase and sale on site, with an online portal – an intelligent bookselling concept.

Witten/Herdecke University orchestra and choir

Ingo Ernst Reihl is director of the UW/H orchestra and choir; he has made them integral parts of the cultural scene in the region over the past two decades. For each Christman they rehearse a new oratorio, and every summer there is a big performance with more cheerful sounds in the great hall.

Mentors promote reading skills

Fifth form pupils at the Albert Schweitzer secondary school in Bochum receive intensified support in German class. For one hour per week UW/H students act as mentors for individual children, read books with them and monitor spelling and dictation exercises.

World:Class foundation

The World:Class foundation provides innovative learning experience to German high school students who spend several weeks in developing and emerging nations and stay in close contact with their class at home.

Students Health Dialogue

Ukraine has one of the highest new HIV infection rates worldwide – reason enough for two medical UW/H students to found the Students Health Dialogue (SHD) in 2004. The idea was sexual education in order to reduce the number of new infections considerably. Today the focus of SHD activities is on sexual education in Germany.

StudierendenGesellschaft Witten/Herdecke

Sketched on a paper napkin by students of Witten/Herdecke University in 1995, the idea of an inverse contract between student generations (UGV) proved to be an innovative payment concept for tuition fees, viable now for over 15 years, and also was the origin of StudierendenGesellschaft Witten/Herdecke e.

Summer school

What do management consultants do? What is business management? The Witten/Herdecke University summer school has answers to these and many more questions for high school students and applicants. A student team hosts this event every year.

Sustainable Innovator Speaker Series

UW/H students founded the Sustainable Innovator Speaker Series in spring 2010. The idea was to add an initiative with a focus on sustainability to the existing student projects at the university. Once or twice per semester they invite executives with a record of sustained social innovation.

Symposium for Applied Cultural Reflexion

A group of UW/H students and teachers attach importance to improved networking among the rapidly expanding number of courses in philosophy and cultural studies, and foster contact with other universities. This is the background of an annual symposium at our university as a forum for information and exchange.

Study group homeopathy

Medical students initiated this self-organized study group for homeopathy in January 2006. We intend to acquire the necessary subject-related knowledge and experience to explore homeopathy as an independent intervention concept integrated into the health care system.

Teddy bear clinic

Students initiated the Teddy Bear Clinic for children from 4 to 6 to help them overcome their fear of doctors and hospitals. The playful setting is intended to stimulate positive associations.

UW/H drama group

Over 15 years ago six theatre-loving students asked Blanche Kommerell to help them enact Ionesco’s “Die kahle Sängerin”. Nobody had an idea of the long-term consequences of this modest start. Since then the drama group has presented an impressive number and variety of performances.

Theatron Logou

Michel Friedman, Günther Beckstein and Wolfgang Schäuble were all guests of theatron logou. This student initiative strives to find answers to major issues of our time or at least to raise new questions that might help to tackle those issues.

Think Tank Series

The Witten/Herdecke Think Tank Series is a forum for innovative ideas. Students organize each meeting in cooperation with selected institutions and explore visions, concepts and future scenarios for one specific industrial sector.

unikat (club)

An event location under student management in the former waiting hall of the main railway station, the unikat(club) epitomizes the concept of Studium fundamentale.

Witten Campus Communications

Entrepreneurs in dialogue

UW/H students invite outstanding representatives of the business community to the university for regular sessions; the guests report and discuss their professional experience and insights with lecturers and students.

Oral Health project Gambia

Several local Oral Health Centers were established all over Gambia in cooperation with the Gambian Ministry of Health, and European and US universities.

Oral Health project Myanmar

Two students of dental medicine went to Myanmar (formerly Burma) to provide dental care in rural areas. Mathias Bendix reports: “Dental hygiene is almost unknown there, so you can imagine the state of dental health among the population. Most of them have never seen a dentist.”