Strong research at a personal university

In the spirit of the Latin root communitas (community, public good), Leuphana sees itself as a university community: it values personal exchange and is committed to the common good from within its community.

• Whether in courses in study and teaching, in research, in administration or in an honorary capacity: Leuphana invites its members to get personally involved and to help shape the university together. 
• We want to make the university an approachable, warm-hearted and personal place. 
• The strong orientation of our members towards the common good is reflected in the diverse professional, but also social and cultural commitment of the university members and especially the students.

Our researchers form the formative foundation for research, teaching and transfer at Leuphana: high-caliber individuals who work on the major transformations of our time with innovative research approaches and produce internationally visible research results.

• Research at Leuphana is supported by a personal, cooperative research culture. It takes place in numerous collaborations with scientists in the institutes, across faculty boundaries, in the research centers and in transdisciplinary projects with external partners from science, business and society.
• The Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) is paradigmatic for this culture: It relies on an intensive personal scientific exchange and on a co-creative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cooperation of the international fellows with each other and with other members of the university. 
• Leuphana's research centers are places for collaborative research and personal exchange on specific scientific focus topics that cross typical disciplinary and faculty boundaries.
• The personal character of research at Leuphana is also reflected in the intensive support of scholars in the qualification phase: In doctoral colleges such as in the Research Training Group "Cultures of Critique: Forms, Media, Effects", which has been funded by the DFG since 2016, doctoral students find a unique forum for working on their dissertation projects, for discourse, feedback, and for interdisciplinary personal exchange. Like postdocs, they receive extensive advising and coaching services at the Graduate School.

The strong research at Leuphana forms the basis for university teaching, which is consistently research-based. Our researchers regularly contribute current research results to teaching and actively involve students in current projects in the spirit of research-based learning.

• The Leuphana study model relies on intensive interdisciplinary exchange, such as in the Leuphana Semester or in Complementary Studies. The personal study atmosphere marks an important prerequisite for this. We understand each individual course as a place of joint research and learning, jointly designed by students and teachers.
• For us, students are much more than just bearers of registration numbers: for us, they are responsible individuals whose education and development we accompany personally and closely in the spirit of our humanistic self-image. 
• The study program at Leuphana offers a variety of choices and options, whether in the combination of major and minor or in the selection of individual modules. In the spirit of the tradition of liberal education, the studies here aim at more than just the acquisition of specialized knowledge and methodological skills, namely at the holistic education and development of the personality of our students. 
• The major Studium Individuale consistently implements this idea: It gives students the opportunity to freely design their curriculum from modules of all Bachelor programs. On this path, students are intensively advised and personally accompanied.
• Whether classically in presence in the lecture hall or in innovative digital teaching and learning settings: We rely on personal support and small group sizes as prerequisites for a flourishing academic discourse.

Well accompanied right from the start: Leuphana accompanies its students personally through their studies from the beginning to the end. Leuphana offers a comprehensive range of services to help students with decisions and problems during all phases of their studies and qualifications. 

• At the start of the bachelor's program, student tutors provide first-year students with targeted support for questions and problems as part of the college tutorial. 
• The student advisors of the Bachelor's and Master's programs offer professional support with concerns and topics such as choosing a course of study, planning the course of study, work organization, exam anxiety and stress management, as well as in decision-making processes in all phases of study. 
• Whether quantitative methods, scientific writing techniques or the deepening of language skills: The Center for Methods, the Writing Center and the Language Center provide support through personal, individual counseling and qualification offers.
• When it comes to career and job orientation and networking with the job market, students and alumni and alumnae can find support in the Career Service. It offers individual counseling and events on topics such as career orientation, internships, job applications, or networking to build interdisciplinary skills and get in touch with potential employers.
• The enterJOB mentoring program supports Leuphana students and alumni in career and life planning and in entering the workforce by networking with experienced mentors from business, politics, culture, administration, or academia.

Our strong research forms the basis for our cooperation and transfer activities: In diverse, innovative cooperation and transfer formats, the university regularly brings its university members together with non-university actors from business and society and initiates a fruitful exchange for all sides. 

• Leuphana's Cooperation Service uses various formats to promote dialogue and knowledge transfer between research, business and society, as well as networking between the university and companies and other organizations.
• Various recruiting events such as the Leuphana Recruiting Dinner, job shadowing formats or the FOR YOUR CAREER fair, which has been offered for many years, bring employers into personal contact with highly qualified students or alumni and alumnae of our university.
• Further event formats such as working groups, practical networks, information and transfer forums, trade fairs or congresses specifically bring sponsors and organizations into personal exchange with university members. Scholarship programs such as the Deutschlandstipendium or the Chancenstipendium intensify personal contact between sponsors and talented, high-achieving students or doctoral candidates.

We know each other and meet in person at our campus: As a medium-sized university, Leuphana offers its members a personal place to research, study and work with all the advantages of a campus university. It develops its campus environment as a place of encounter and personal exchange.

• We see our campus not only as a research or learning environment, but also as a living environment with a personal flair and as a meeting place for the members of the university. For many years, the university has been actively shaping this living environment in a participatory community project with its members. 
• In the course of campus development, attractive learning and working places with a high quality of stay have been and are being created in a targeted manner, enabling inspiring encounters and promoting personal exchange.
• Sustainability is not only anchored in our mission statement as a central principle, but we live it in our actions in everyday study and work.

Leuphana also designs the workplace as a personal place. It offers an inspiring working environment and invites its members to get personally involved in line with the guiding principle of action orientation. In its work culture, it relies on the freedom, trust, responsibility, and autonomy of its employees.

• Leuphana allows flexible working hours within a flexitime framework, as well as opportunities to alternate between presence work and mobile work, in order to accommodate the personal needs and living conditions of its employees. 
• The Family Service provides support and advice on all relevant issues concerning the compatibility of studies, doctoral studies or career with family, as well as childcare options. The initiative Eltern im Studium (EliStu) is aimed specifically at student parents. Both students and employees can take advantage of several childcare options offered by daycare centers. 
  Leuphana has been awarded the FaMi seal as a family-friendly employer and has signed the "Family in Higher Education" charta.
• The university takes care of the further qualification of its employees with an extensive portfolio of internal and external further education offers.
• The academic personnel development and the personnel development for employees in technology and administration advise, accompany and support employees in their professional orientation, further development and interdisciplinary competence development over the entire life cycle.
• Health promotion offerings such as employee sports provide a place for joint sports activities and personal exchange among colleagues.