The "Village Lab" teaching project at the University of Konstanz is one of 37 projects funded by the foundation "Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre (StIL)" as part of the call "Die Welt ist mein Campus" (the world is my campus). The project will create a new interdisciplinary programme on the topic of democracy in rural areas. It provides students with hands-on preparation to take an active and responsible role in shaping democratic processes. The funding amount for Village Lab is up to 3.4 million euros for a project duration of four years. Funding starts on 1 July 2026.
"As a university, one of our fundamental responsibilities is to impart not only subject-specific knowledge to our students, but also to enable them to navigate contradictions and to understand and tolerate diverse perspectives. Village Lab directly addresses this mission by training future graduates to practice democracy in a real-world context. I am very pleased that this important teaching project can now move into implementation thanks to the generous support from the foundation Stiftung ‘Innovation in der Hochschullehre’", says Rüdiger Wilhelmi, Vice Rector for Teaching at the University of Konstanz.
Rural areas as learning environments
The new, interdisciplinary programme will offer a broad and dynamic learning experience. Alongside lectures, seminars and skills training with a strong focus on democratic competencies, supervised practical placements and teaching-transfer projects with collaboration partners in rural regions will play a central role. In this context, students and lecturers will, for example, collaborate with municipalities to jointly develop solutions to concrete local societal challenges and thus actively help shape democratic processes.
"We deliberately use rural regions as learning environments, as democratic negotiation processes can be experienced there in a particularly direct and tangible way", explains Sibylle Mühleisen from the Transfer in Teaching team at the University of Konstanz. Together with her colleague Albert Kümmel-Schnur, she coordinates the Village Lab project. "In this way, students will learn to navigate diverse and at times conflict-laden social environments in a responsible, respectful and tolerant manner."
By strengthening their democratic skills and ability to take responsibility, the future programme "Demokratie in ländlichen Räumen" (democracy in rural areas) will prepare students for their roles as future decision-makers in a practical way. At the same time, Village Lab will strengthen societal dialogue between the University of Konstanz and the participating rural regions and lead to new, long-term collaborations with local partners.
About the foundation and the project
Since 2021, the foundation "Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre (StIL)" (innovation in university teaching) has been funding innovative teaching projects at individual institutions of higher education as well as joint projects. The funds are provided by the federal and state governments. In addition, the foundation creates networking opportunities for the community, strengthens knowledge transfer and promotes the exchange of project results, successes and challenges.
The call "Die Welt ist mein Campus" specifically targets initiatives that strengthen students in their roles as future leaders, placing particular emphasis on fostering their engagement with both academia and society. As part of this funding, institutions of higher education are given the opportunity to realign their study programme portfolio, for example by further developing their study programmes and developing new ones. The total funding volume of the call amounts to approximately 84 million euros.
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