V Global Symposium Uniservitate - Transforming Higher Education from within, November 7 and 8, 2024 in Rome, Italy

The V Global Symposium Uniservitate represents a very important event for Catholic universities worldwide, particularly for those committed to community engagement and social responsibility

This year’s participants of the Global Symposium were honored to engage in a private audience with the Holy Father, Pope Francis. During his address he underscored the high importance of service-learning as a part of the identity of Catholic universities, who should be open to society, be engaged and who should support “learning by Heads, Hands and Hearts”. More details can be found here (in German only)

Despite the comprehensive schedule and the variety of the events planned at the Global Symposium, the Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt seized the opportunity and beyond the official program hosted a specialized workshop for the delegation from Bethlehem University. Among other topics the possibilities of the implementation and development of service-learning in the context of war or armed conflicts were discussed. The workshop provided a platform not only to present the ServU project which is based on the experience of Ukrainian universities, but also to receive reflections and insights from the representatives of Bethlehem University regarding their challenges of implementing service-learning amidst an armed conflict in another part of the world.
The joint discussion contributed to a deeper understanding of these challenges and the respective responses, and it reaffirmed that service -learning during war, armed conflicts and other crises is a good strategy to support the continuity of the educational process while supporting students’ desire to contribute to community welfare.