"We need to make effective use of our limited cognitive resources."

40 years of the University of Siegen’s Wednesday Academy—this was the theme of the ceremonial opening of the semester at the Kulturhaus Lӱz in Siegen. “We offer our heartfelt congratulations on this 40th anniversary,” said Rector Prof. Dr. Stefanie Reese, conveying the university administration’s best wishes. “The Wednesday Academy is an impressive success story.” Education, the Rector noted, does not end with a college degree or vocational training. The Wednesday Academy offers people from a wide variety of educational backgrounds the opportunity to engage with academic topics, discuss them with one another, and form their own opinions. Another key factor is the faculty, who know how to explain academic concepts in a way that makes their essential points understandable.

Siegen’s Deputy Mayor, Désirée Schütz: “We look back on four decades in which people have lived out and further developed this concept. This means that education knows no age limits.” The city, according to Schütz, is proud of its university. Education is a lifelong process. Especially in today’s world, there is a need for formats and venues like the Wednesday Academy.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Habscheid, the academic director of the Wednesday Academy, reflected on its history: “This anniversary gives us cause to reflect on our own identity.” The Wednesday Academy stands for the transmission of knowledge with academic rigor, for academic freedom, and for intergenerational justice. From the very beginning, the Wednesday Academy was intended as an opportunity for those “who had always wanted to study at a university but never had the chance.” It is dedicated to participants who, of their own accord, seek to engage in social and political life. The University of Siegen has supported this project from the very beginning, including its expansion to Olpe in 1989–90. Since 2022, the “Hanseakademie” has also been in operation in Attendorn.

Keynote speaker Prof. Christiane Hof (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main) is an expert in adult education and continuing education. She spoke about the university as a place of lifelong learning. There are no simple answers to questions about the nature and efficiency of knowledge acquisition in later life. Learning in old age depends on interests and personal resources: “We must make effective use of our more limited cognitive resources.” The Wednesday Academy provides an ideal foundation for doing so. Lifelong learning is an individual process of acquiring and processing new knowledge. The framework that universities can provide as spaces for enabling and supporting learning also plays a role in this. The accelerating pace of change means that people must increasingly engage with new knowledge.

In the spirit of the Third Mission (alongside research and teaching), universities are places of knowledge transfer tasked with contributing to the resolution of societal challenges. Unlike schools, universities “address problems that have not yet been solved.” Universities are therefore also places of knowledge generation, for example through inquiry-based learning. Research, knowledge transfer, and the engagement with knowledge define universities. 

Learners of all ages are called upon to think independently, argue scientifically, tolerate uncertainty, and process knowledge. For individuals, lifelong learning means continuing biographical learning processes and connecting new topics with their own experiences. For society, lifelong learning means exploring complex challenges and facilitating informed public discourse. For the Wednesday Academy, this means creating its own spaces for encounter that are committed to the principles of scientific inquiry and combine scholarship with personal education.

During a subsequent discussion with Prof. Dr. Christiane Hof, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Buchmann (University of Siegen), and Hartmut Kastell (MitWeltZukunft Working Group), Vice Rector Dr. Barbara Müller-Naendrup presented the University of Siegen’s Campus for Lifelong Learning (ca:lll). Its focus is based on the new Higher Education Strengthening Act of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The ca:lll is built on two pillars: strengthened professional continuing education and formats for science communication.