NRW Minister President Hendrik Wüst learns about innovative education and research approaches at Witten/Herdecke University

With the guiding principle of breaking new ground and realising visionary ideas in the educational landscape, Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) has stood for a special entrepreneurial spirit for more than 40 years. During a visit to UW/H, Hendrik Wüst, Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Verena Schäffer, leader of the Green Party in the NRW state parliament, and Dirk Leistner, the new mayor of the city of Witten, discussed this with representatives of the Governing Bodies and academics. The exchange provided an opportunity to present key profile elements of Germany's first private university, to talk about current social issues in teaching and research and to highlight UW/H's contribution to state-wide political goals - such as strengthening NRW as a business and health location, expanding innovation and achieving climate neutrality.

Degree programmes focus on the needs of the labour market and society

North Rhine-Westphalia's economy is to be strengthened by promoting digitalisation, artificial intelligence and other future technologies. With its unique research specialisation in the field of family businesses, the UW/H focuses on the most widespread type of business in NRW and investigates, among other things, how digital technologies can be implemented and innovations generated here.

The UW/H also builds on this entrepreneurial attitude in its teaching, tailoring its portfolio to the needs of future generations and training specialists and managers who are oriented towards the needs of a changing labour market: A completely new teaching and learning concept currently being developed in the Faculty of Management, Economics and Society marks the beginning of a transformation process that pays into the effectiveness of students and offers them maximum freedom of design - with all the individual, academically sound learning paths it takes to achieve this. The model degree programme in medicine will increasingly train family doctors in order to improve general practice care - also and above all in rural regions of North Rhine-Westphalia. In this way, the UW/H is continuing to make a consistent impact in an area of healthcare that is currently facing major challenges.

Shaping society together

The state government is also endeavouring to combat loneliness in North Rhine-Westphalia. Loneliness is an important research specialisation at the School of Psychology and Psychotherapy at UW/H, so the politicians also discussed this with UW/H members.

Minister President Hendrik Wüst: "North Rhine-Westphalia places particular emphasis on education, science and research as key drivers of our state's future. Nowhere else in Europe is the university and research landscape as dense, diverse and efficient as here. With 77 universities, universities of excellence, numerous top clusters and a strong network of universities and non-university institutions, we create the best conditions for innovation, economic strength and social progress. The success of this structural change is particularly evident in the Ruhr region: an industrial region has become an internationally recognised location for science, health and medical research. Witten/Herdecke University also makes an important contribution to this strong environment. It stands for outstanding teaching and research, interdisciplinarity, practical relevance and a clear social value orientation. With its research specialisations in areas such as healthcare and the expansion of study places in medicine, psychology and psychotherapy, it contributes - with the support of the state government - to securing medical care in the long term, especially in rural areas. Our political aim is to further expand North Rhine-Westphalia's leading position as a centre of science - in the interests of the people, the economy and the future of our state."

Fulfilling ecological responsibility through sustainable construction

During a subsequent tour of the timber-hybrid building, which will open in 2021 and is one of the most sustainable university buildings in Germany, it also became clear that UW/H is committed to combining ecological responsibility and forward-looking infrastructure. The building and the university's other sustainability measures can serve as an example of how climate neutrality can be achieved in North Rhine-Westphalia by 2035 - as agreed in the state government's coalition agreement.

Verena Schäffer from Witten says: "The UW/H combines scientific innovation with a strong foundation of values. Here we can see how entrepreneurial spirit, sustainability and social commitment work together - impulses that reach far beyond the campus and make an important contribution to the future of our country."

"Witten/Herdecke University has always stood for the courage to pave new paths and for the aspiration to combine an entrepreneurial attitude, social responsibility and personal development," says University President Prof Dr Martin Butzlaff. "The exchange with Minister President Hendrik Wüst, Verena Schäffer and Dirk Leistner has shown how important the dialogue between science and politics is in order to jointly promote positive change and social cohesion and to set impulses in business, health and society."