University of Applied Sciences Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany
Founded in 1991, the University has long gained a reputation for its well-rounded academic education programme and motivated student body. Interested students can choose from around 50 study programmes taught at three departments in Magdeburg and two departments in Stendal. Around 130 professors guarantee a very good staff-to-student contact ratio, with approximately 4,200 students in Magdeburg and 2,100 in Stendal. Since the winter semester 2005/06, the University has exclusively offered Bachelor and Master study programmes.
Childhood Studies and Children's Rights
This innovative programme of study is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and on implementing the children's rights that it covers. Children have rights to participate in all decisions and processes affecting them, to equitable access to societal resources (e.g. health, education) and to effective protection from violence and exploitation. All institutions, processes and measures oriented around children at national, state/regional and local level must be designed and evaluated according to these considerations.
Students become qualified to represent children and their concerns and interests in terms of the UNCRC to responsible political entities in all vocational fields on a sound academic basis. They support children and young people with the help of stakeholder- and subject-oriented approaches, which are aimed at understanding institutional and social frameworks from the perspective of the affected parties and at shaping those frameworks with those parties.
Scholars and researchers in childhood studies are able, for example, to design projects and programmes aimed at integrating socially disadvantaged children, promote child health and implement appropriate preventative programmes, develop projects with children and young people to boost political participation, research the conditions and effects of child poverty and the circumstances of children with a migration background, and initiate suitable regional integration projects.
