The conference "Strengthening democratic competence in higher education: Universities as trailblazers for social participation", which took place on 21 July 2025 in Stuttgart, was aimed at university employees in the areas of study start, university didactics, curriculum development, study programme coordination, key competencies and university management (vice rectorates and vice presidents for teaching). Almost 100 university staff took part in the event.
The primary aim of the conference was to provide a platform for exchange and discussion between universities on this important topic through impulses from science and society. The conference programme was varied and addressed the topic from different perspectives. In addition to the keynote speech "What is democratic competence and how can it be promoted?", which was given by Professor Hermann Josef Abs from the Institute of Educational Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, a panel discussion took place in the morning with Minister Petra Olschowski, Professor Hermann Josef Abs, Professor Dr Frauke Melchior (Rector of Heidelberg University) and Linus Häberle (Chairman of the Baden-Württemberg State Student Representation). They discussed how universities can be supported by the state government, to what extent the promotion of democratic competence and the ability to "act responsibly in a free, democratic and social constitutional state" (§ 29 para. 1 sentence 2 LHG) is necessary in view of an increasingly heterogeneous student body and whether such programmes already exist.
In her introductory speech, the Minister emphasised how important it is to address this topic: "Our democracy cannot be taken for granted. It has to be learnt, lived and defended - day after day. In this context, universities have a special role to play. They are places of knowledge acquisition, reflection, encounters, open discussion and personal development."
Best practice examples were presented in order to network university employees with each other. In three parallel sessions in the afternoon, experiences were exchanged on three different topics. In the workshop "Democracy education across the disciplines - impulses from Lüneburg", led by Sven Prien-Ribcke, Head of Academic Events at Leuphana College at Leuphana University Lüneburg, the Lüneburg model was used to show how democratic competence can be promoted in extra-curricular university activities.
In the workshop "How can service learning, education for sustainable development and global awareness education contribute to promoting democratic competence?" three examples from Baden-Württemberg were presented. Julia Derkau, University of Mannheim, Glaucia Peres da Silva, University of Tübingen, and Professor Dr Christian Arndt, Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences, reported on the programmes offered at their universities and how these programmes contribute, albeit indirectly, to the promotion of democratic competence.
In the workshop "Integrating democratic competence into curricula and teaching", Junior Professor Dr Sebastian Engelmann from the Institute for General and Historical Educational Science at the Karlsruhe University of Education addressed the question of how the development of democratic competence in students can be supported by curricular structures and teaching.
The event documentation is available to all employees of state and state-recognised universities in Baden-Württemberg on the digital platform bw Campus Community at https://campuscomm.de/media_center/folder/9c421a30-78e6-4c62-ab4e-4c896814a002 (only with a registered account).
We invite all university members from Baden-Württemberg to further discussions on this topic on bw Campus Community!
Further reports on the conference can be found on LinkedIn: