Discover your potential beyond your degree programme
The Studium fundamentale of the UW/H
What is the Studium fundamentale?
Studium fundamentale (Stufu) is at the heart of our university, as it brings together students from our various degree programmes in around 100 different courses. You will get to know the working and thinking methods of an economist, a dentist, a nursing scientist or a psychologist and thus have the opportunity to further your education and try things out beyond your degree programme.
You choose the seminars that match your personal interests and curiosity. And you might even discover new talents within yourself!
Inspire the audience at our concerts as part of the choir or the orchestra or slip into a different role on the theatre stage. Perhaps you are more interested in discussing current social issues with others and finding solutions. There is something for every interest and you are free to choose what your Stufu timetable looks like.
Stufu is a conscious step out of your comfort zone to learn new things about yourself and realise your full potential.
How does the Stufu work?
If you are wondering how to integrate Studium fundamentale into your degree programme and reconcile it with the subject-specific seminars - we have made sure that you can combine the two perfectly:
Stufu is an integral part of every degree programme. You complete around ten per cent of your coursework in Stufu. The Stufu courses always take place on Thursdays, as there are no subject-specific seminars on this day.
You will like the Studium fundamentale in Witten if you ...
- want to discover new areas of interest.
- want to have the opportunity to express yourself creatively during your studies.
- want to train your interdisciplinary thinking.
- want to get to know other ways of thinking and avoid professional one-dimensionality.
- want to develop your own language skills beyond your own specialised knowledge.
- want to think and act in a future-orientated and cosmopolitan way.
- want to develop your own powers of judgement and critical faculties.
- want to develop your personality.
- want to have a free choice from a range of around 100 interdisciplinary courses.
What are the aims of Stufu and what content can you expect?
Studying is much more than just an academic education. Studium fundamentale contributes to this comprehensive school of life and aims to prepare you for life's challenges. In addition to specialised knowledge, you will acquire valuable skills such as self-management, critical thinking, communication skills and resilience. These skills will not only accompany you during your studies, but also throughout the rest of your life - in the world of work and in your everyday personal life.
Through the Stufu, our students train their perception and communication skills in a heterogeneous context, which are essential for dealing responsibly and sustainably with the challenges of their future appointments and social life.
With this in mind, the seminar programme gives you the opportunity to deal with the big questions of human existence, ethical dilemmas and the search for truth in the philosophical seminars. You will train your understanding of art as an expression of human creativity and reflection of social developments in the artistic seminars.
However, if you are more interested in sustainable topics such as climate change, social justice or global challenges, or would like to learn more about history or politics, you will also find what you are looking for at Stufu. You can also find other exciting topics in areas such as communication and conflict management, literature, diversity, ecology, STEM, technology, digitalisation, scientific reflection and inclusion.
The Stufu from the perspective of our students
More than just a university.
Stufu is the chance to develop myself by trying out different ways of thinking in different disciplines. It is precisely this competence - allowing and applying different ways of thinking - that I believe a university should provide: it should help you to become a complex, well-rounded and interested person.
Through the Stufu programme, I gain a more flexible perspective on the content of my main study programme by learning to integrate the perspectives of other disciplines into my thinking. Apart from that, the Stufu can become a saving anchor in times of compulsively focussed learning phases.
For me, Stufu means balance, further training and learning new things in fields other than dentistry. I love discussing with students and lecturers in the seminars - Stufu is indispensable for me.
Education instead of training - what better way to fulfil this formula than by engaging with the world's cultural assets? Whether it's artistic piano lessons, speech training for actors or night-time rhetoric seminars in a monastery. This is the Stufu: a colourful format in which everyone can learn a lot for life.
