Freie Universität Berlin

What characterizes a positive university culture in terms of education? What makes teaching and learning at Freie Universität special? What should education look like ten years from now at our university?

Freie Universität Berlin addressed these questions as part of a campus-wide participatory process aimed at developing a shared vision for the future of education and teaching. Everyone at our university – from the academic departments to the administrative units, from first-year students to the provost – was invited to join in the collaborative effort of developing a mission statement for teaching and learning and an educational strategy for the university. A tangential goal of this process was to strengthen our own educational community by bringing together motivated individuals from a variety of areas and with different backgrounds.

The process was launched in the 2020 summer semester. Everyone was invited – students, instructors, and university employees working in research, education, and administration! Anyone who is a member of the university and feels strongly about teaching and education was welcome to contribute their ideas and knowledge. Due to the measures taken in mid-March 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the whole process has been extended until the end of 2021. At the same time, the project gained unique new insights from our experiences during the digital and remote semesters in 2020 and 2021.

Around 300 university members took part in the process. The central events attracted about 270 people, while the twenty working groups comprised over 120 people among them. On July 14, 2021, Freie Universität Berlin’s Academic Senate approved the mission statement for teaching and learning, which has gone hand in hand with the development of our teaching and education strategy. Both are fundamental to daily life at Freie Universität, and with the support of our strong educational community, they will help shape the future of teaching and studying and teaching at our university.