Miscellaneous

DSW-Journal 4/2022: University for all

University for All: Claim and Reality

  • Inclusion in the German Higher Education System: Analysis in the new DSW Journal 4/2022 of Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW)
  • 40 Years DSW Information and Counseling Center Study and Disability (IBS)
  • 11% of students have a health impairment, disability or chronic disease
  • "My mother tongue is sign language": five impaired students in their everyday life at university

Berlin, 10 November 2022. What is the state of inclusion in the German higher education system? How far is it realized for the 11% of students with a health impairment? How do they cope with their everyday university life? What is going well, what is not? Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW) dedicates the new issue 4/2022 of its DSW Journal to these questions.

The occasion is the 40th anniversary of the Information and Counseling Center Study and Disability (IBS) of Deutsches Studentenwerk; parallel to the publication of the DSW Journal 4/2022, the DSW is organizing the conference "Status and Perspectives of Inclusion at Universities" on 10 and 11 November 2022 in Berlin. The IBS has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for 40 years.

For the cover story "Wanted: The University for All" in the new DSW Journal 4/2022, Jeannette Goddar analyzes the state of the claim and reality of inclusion in the German higher education system. Taking as her starting point the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the "University for All" recommendation of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), Goddar gives experts from universities, federal and state ministries, and also impaired students themselves a chance to have their say.

Among other things, he discusses the difficulties of chronically or mentally ill students, who are denied the disadvantage compensation to which they are entitled with reference to a legal ruling from the 1980s, or barrier-free digital university teaching.

In the "Praxis" section of the DSW Journal 4/2022, five students with different impairments are portrayed in their everyday university life under the title "Studying inclusively," including Marcus Seeburger, who is deaf and studies transportation and logistics at Heilbronn University. He says, "My mother tongue is sign language."

In a guest article, Alexander von Boehmer, chairman of the Working Group of Representatives of Severely Disabled Persons in Germany, argues that academically qualified people with disabilities should be seen first and foremost as urgently needed skilled workers. Universities and employers must create better qualification and work conditions for them, von Boehmer demands.

From the world of the student and studying services the DSW journal 4/2022 presents the advisory center for the inclusion of handicapped studying (BZI) of the academic promotion work, AKAFÖ, Bochum, the team of the advisory center barrier-free studying of the student union Berlin as well as the student union Marburg with its inclusive student dormitory Konrad Biesalski house.

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