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Gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen gestalten: Transformationskompetenz in Wissenschaft und Hochschule 2024 BayWISS Annual Colloquium

Review of the 2024 BayWISS Annual Colloquium at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt, 26 September 2024 (Petra Hemmelmann/upd) – Climate crisis, political and economic conflicts, increasing migration, more automation and digitalisation: society is going through radical changes in many respects. How can universities contribute to actively shaping this great transformation? How can science support a sustainable development? The Annual Colloquium of the Bavarian Academic Forum – BayWISS addressed these questions on Wednesday at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU). About 100 scientists from all Bavarian universities and universities of applied sciences got together at Ingolstadt Campus to participate in workshops, talks and discussions.

In his opening words, Prof. Dr. Kai Fischbach, President of the University of Bamberg and Chairman of the BayWISS Steering Board, declared that also BayWISS was an important factor in the transformation debate: "The good cooperation in Bavaria is unique in Germany and will help us to manage future challenges." BayWISS is the cooperation platform of all 38 universities, universities of applied sciences and universities of the arts in Bavaria, which was founded in 2015. 

Internationally renowned Prof. Dr. Claus Leggewie from the Universität Gießen held a keynote speech on "2030, 2050, 2100... bereiten unser Universitätssystem und unsere Wissensordnung auf die Zukunft vor?“ (2030, 2050, 2100... do our higher education system and our knowledge system prepare for the future?) Prof. Dr. Leggewie stated that considering the fact that there's lots of talk of a change of times, the science system was too strongly pursuing business as usual. He remarked that outdated forms of lecturing and studying still dominated, there was too little practical orientation. The worries of our young generation should be taken seriously and not remain a private affair – the educational system has a responsibility regarding this matter: "It's about restoring the ability to improvise and being enthusiastic, about accessing opportunities to act to work against the prescribed lack of alternatives."

Prof. Dr. Leggewie put particular emphasis on migration: "Politics intend to prevent migration, keep democracy – and is shattering Europe without the AfD receiving even one vote less." The political scientist Leggewie outlined the situation in Africa – and developed an "Afrotopia", how the continent might develop if "politics no longer blows up migration, but instead would address the root causes of flight". Prof. Dr. Leggewie demands a radical change of view – with regard to not only migration and Africa, but also all societal challenges: everything was connected to everything else and fixed existence was replaced by permanent development.

"Planetary thinking means to combine the systematic view of challenges with the normative view of democratic foundations", says Prof. Dr. Leggewie. A "universitas" was to sharpen the view for issues in their entirety; interdisciplinarity should come at the beginning and not at the end of a course of study. In a combative spirit, Prof. Dr. Leggewie gave the audience something to keep in mind: "Science cannot save the world, but it cannot stand aside when endeavouring to make it a better place."

During the following panel discussion, scientists discussed the role of universities for the great transformation. Prof. Dr. Silja Graupe, President of the Koblenz Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, directed the initial focus on communication: People – as well as institutions – had to re-enter into dialogue and learn how to understand each other. "We're dealing with insecure personalities in the field of education – personality formation should become a separate field."

Prof. Dr. Harald Pechlaner, Founding Dean of the School of Transformation and Sustainability at the KU, asked of himself and of his colleagues: "We must become more visible as a science system." That this depends on how this is achieved, was stressed by Prof. Dr. Eric Veulliet, President of the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences: "Science can be too much for politics and society; we use a type of language that is not understood. We therefore know more and more, but less and less is perceived."

Passau Professor Dr. Anna Henkel, who initiated the DFG network „Sociology of Sustainability“, said that a practical line of reasoning was a feature of science: "That can be learnt regardless the discipline and should be focussed on to a greater extent." Prof. Dr. Silja Graupe objected that every argument had its own context. She demanded: "We must fight for the basis, from which our arguments stem, to not only be understood but also shared." Prof. Dr. Claus Leggewie agreed: "We must stop using plastic words such as transformation." Instead of talking about the climate catastrophe one had better, for instance, explain what people can gain by changes in climate policy.

Prof. Dr. Graupe said that also the attitude in the higher education system must change: "Transformative science means to understand that we ourselves are surrounded by uncertainty and that our knowledge is temporary." Prof. Dr. Leggewie added: "We need to develop a new type of communication and form of studying, but students require more freedom to do so." The perspective of the Ministry for Science was added on stage by Dr. Andrea Siems; the discussion was moderated by Jeanne Turczynski from the Bayerische Rundfunk.

In the afternoon, the participants divided into four group workshops in order to intensively address individual aspects of transformation in science. The first workshop dealt with developing ideas for personal scientific projects which include citizens in the research process. In the second workshop, the group discussed the meaning of studying and teaching transformation. A further group had a look at first empirical findings on learning about global transformation and discussed their meaning for research, teaching and continuing education. The fourth workshop addressed science communication, more specifically the questions what makes communication trustworthy and how can different target groups be addressed.