Teachingarchitecture_BuildingBridges: cohesive university community@THRO

Project background

As education is considered the key to inclusion, inclusive university architecture is essential for democratic societies. Students' and university staff's well-being, satisfaction, personal resilience, performance, and commitment increase when they feel socially integrated and accepted at their university and are able to get involved. Exclusive structures, such as a socially fragmented student body, have the opposite effect.

There are also signs that social inclusion needs to be strengthened at Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences. The number of international students is increasing rapidly, and internal observations confirm the formation of groups among students. In-house surveys also document a reduced subjective sense of well-being among employees.

A more cohesive university community is an intermediate goal in a roadmap with social inclusion as a benchmark.

Project objective

In the context of Bridges4RO, the creation of bridges to the university community and the development of a culture of participation are milestones that improve the quality of education and reduce discrimination in everyday university life.

Milestone 1: Access to the university community is ensured by providing opportunities for building bridges from the first day of study. Structures for welcoming, introducing, and systematically onboarding and orienting students are developed and optimized.

Interim goal 2: The university's culture of participation is strengthened by closing windows of discrimination and creating opportunities for interaction in everyday university life. Students help reduce discrimination by participating in the identification of discriminatory experiences. At the same time, they develop knowledge and awareness in this area (diversity competence). Attractive opportunities for encounters and exchange are created by selecting, designing, and evaluating spaces and occasions collaboratively.

Interim goal 3: Collaborative teaching and learning scenarios are tailored to students' needs to provide quality education within a cohesive university community.

Project procedure

Bridges4RO begins with an analysis of the initial situation regarding the social cohesion of the university community, conducted via a university-wide survey. This survey provides the project with the knowledge it needs to achieve its milestones (subject areas).

The steering committee, which is made up of students, lecturers, university staff, and members of the university management, is based on the principles of social diversity and equality. It supports the project work.

Prototype measures are then developed in the subject areas. Following an implementation phase, the prototypes undergo formative evaluation in an evaluation loop and are optimized based on the feedback received. The project's achievements will be reflected upon by analyzing the results of the formative analysis alongside a post hoc survey on the status quo of social cohesion within the university community.

Innovation

Bridges4RO delivers direct benefits to Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences and the region by designing, evaluating, and consolidating social inclusion measures in a participatory and interdisciplinary manner within the university's organizational unit for the first time. The findings provide impetus not only for the university landscape and education system, but also for diversity management.

The objective-related outcomes benefit the students and university members involved. A sense of belonging, personal resilience, student performance, well-being, and academic self-concept are all promoted positively. Network density and social cohesion become more evenly distributed. Dropout rates fall. Students indirectly benefit from an increased ability to integrate into the labor market, not least through improved study adherence and performance. The university flourishes in terms of participation and diversity, gaining relevant competitive advantages. Overall, the region's innovative strength is also enhanced.

Bridges4RO is a progressive approach to the challenges that advances in social inclusion can pose to teaching and learning. A positive culture of participation establishes universities as schools of democracy, from which society benefits in the long term.

Academia fulfils its responsibility by advancing the diversity capacity of the education system through cohesion measures. This provides a real opportunity to promote equal opportunities in the education system beyond THRO. This is because bridges are created that can be used outside the university and adopted by other institutions.