The third pillar of the universities

Universities, as educational and research institutions, are assuming social responsibility more and more. In addition to the core tasks of teaching and research, nowadays they need to fulfil a third one: to actively accompany current and future social processes together with non-academic partners or addressees, supplementing them with impulses coming straight from the university.

The EHB is characterised by this combination of teaching, research and social commitment. As a university of applied sciences, the EHB has developed and maintains a long-standing network with welfare organisations and institutions of professional practice. As part of the establishment of the Third Mission, which took place in April 2018, EHB pursues the goals of its knowledge transfer strategy through the transfer of research-based competences and SAGE expertise in collaboration with companies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in the wider community.

Through cooperation projects and through the networking with companies, foundations, organisations and other higher education institutions, the EHB lecturers that are interested in research and its transfer ensure knowledge development and dissemination. This knowledge transfer can be seen as a community outreach program, incorporating the university’s specialist expertise as well as the staff’s application-related skills and providing these as consultancy activities. The EHB researchers as well as their partners from the social, health, education and church sectors have various transfer channels at their disposal, always aware of the fact that knowledge transfer takes place either through information, cooperation or people themselves.

The Zentrum für Fort- und Weiterbildung (ZFW – Centre for Further and Continuing Education) offers an extensive program of further and continuing education courses that structurally correspond to the modules of the university’s degree programs. In addition, individually tailored offers have been developed, these are available to our students and they have been successively expanded and augmented.