Continuing Education for Students

The “Additional qualification in Religious Education and Pastoral Care” at the Faculty of Religious Education is aimed at students in the BA Social Work, BA Education, and other educational degree programs. Complementing regular studies, this is an attractive study program with a theological and pastoral foundation, in which students can acquire orientation knowledge that will help them navigate church and religion-related fields of work with confidence.

The additional qualification is particularly interesting for students whose future career prospects lie in church-oriented fields of work, such as youth workers in association/church youth work, advisors at church social institutions, or in religion-related fields.

Climate change, migration, global injustice, digitalization, globalization, biodiversity loss — all of these issues are closely linked to the challenge of sustainable development.

The supplementary course in “Sustainable Development” offers the opportunity to explore these issues of the future in depth during your studies at the KU and to link them to your major degree program. You will acquire knowledge and important skills for your future career and for helping to shape sustainable development. The program is open to all KU students from the third semester of their Bachelor's degree onwards and offers a wide range of elective modules, allowing you to set your own individual focus. If your additional studies comprise at least two modules from the field of education, you will receive the additional title of Sustainability Coach.

“Personal Development & Social Commitment” is a co-curricular supplementary program. It is aimed at committed students from all disciplines and faculties. Over a period of approximately three semesters, students can contribute to solving social challenges and take responsibility for self-organized projects alongside their main field of study. There is both the opportunity to participate in existing projects and the chance to initiate new projects.

The supplementary studies combine learning and the acquisition of skills in the context of social commitment and promote the sense of purpose, creative and self-organization skills of students that are necessary for the future of a vibrant civil society. Accordingly, there are no courses in the traditional sense. Instead, the focus is on independent learning through participation in self-organized project groups. Independent work and learning in the individual modules is accompanied by a theory seminar and a guided reflection at the end of each module.

The following modules are currently offered:

• Responsibility and Social Problem Solving Ability
• Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Society and the Church
• Civil Society, Democracy, and Participation

The skills acquired in the three modules are recognized in a continuing education certificate. In addition, each of the modules can also be taken as part of the Studium.Pro program.

The supplementary studies will be offered starting in the 2022 summer semester.

Responsible contact person: Prof. Dr. Katharina Karl, Professur für Pastoraltheologie