More than 900 participants in further education courses, over 600 part-time students and just over 1,400 auditors: the C3L – Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Oldenburg – recorded rising figures across all areas in 2025. The C3L’s annual report highlights the educational programmes and developments that have taken place and are currently underway in the field of lifelong learning.

The focus is on the 20th anniversary of the academic centre, which will be celebrated this autumn with a varied programme of events. In addition to C3L participants, lecturers and partners, anyone interested is invited to attend the eight events. The festive opening event on 15 September is themed ‘The future begins with education – trends and challenges’.

To mark the anniversary, the report looks back at the milestones in further education at the University of Oldenburg. It becomes clear that adult education has been part of the profile of this reform-oriented university from the very beginning. Many of the programmes currently offered at the C3L were developed even before it was founded. This applies to guest student programmes as well as, for example, psychosocial further education courses or part-time degree programmes.

As early as the 1970s, the so-called ‘Z-Prüfung’ opened up access to higher education without an Abitur. In an interview, Jutta Günther describes how this programme enabled a career path from pharmacy assistant to Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bremen. C3L co-founding director Anke Hanft explains why there needs to be greater knowledge transfer between the university, business and society in order to put research to good use. And professional basketball player Kevin Smit talks about his experiences of studying whilst working.

Click here to download the C3L Annual Report 2025