Award-winning promotion of student volunteering

Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) has always placed great emphasis on social commitment and student volunteering - now UW/H has become one of the first universities ever to be awarded the "Committed University" certificate by the Association of German Student Initiatives (VDSI) for its support of student initiatives.

"The promotion of student initiatives at Witten/Herdecke University is unique in the university landscape - you can tell how important social commitment is here in Witten," explains Michel Böhm from the VDSI Executive Board. "With 17 out of a possible 20 points, the university has achieved its highest score to date. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that students even receive credits (credit points) for their voluntary work - an option that has only been available at a few universities to date."

"Our most important task as a university is to train competent graduates who can and want to take on social responsibility - even during their discontinuance of studies," adds Prof Dr Martin Butzlaff, President of Witten/Herdecke University. "Supporting our initiatives is particularly important to us here because the commitment has a twofold effect: On the one hand, the students serve society, but they also develop personally by developing their own ideas and gaining valuable practical experience."

Diverse opportunities to positively change the world through volunteering

In total, there are more than 50 student-led initiatives at the UW/H with very different focuses: nouranour opens up professional opportunities for women with a migration background, "wittenbolzt" combines environmental education with football, free cargo bikes are available via the Pottkutsche and Unikat is a student-run cultural and meeting space in the centre of Witten. The United Students for Ukraine aid initiative was recently founded in response to the war in Ukraine and has been coordinating donations in kind and money ever since.

The activities are bundled in the student-run Initiativlabor, which serves as the first point of contact for the founding and further development of initiatives, offers further training formats and provides premises.

The certificate was awarded on 7 April 2022 at the start of the semester before the "World of Possibilities". At this fair at the start of the semester, the initiatives present their projects to students and invite them to get involved.