ATTENTION: From the winter semester 2025, the certificate programme will be paused for the time being and the courses will no longer be offered regularly!

The role of university collections in the development of today's academic disciplines cannot be overestimated. As teaching and learning resources, they offer a wide range of starting points for interdisciplinary research and access to research-based learning for students. For this reason, the Institute of Material Culture, in co-operation with the Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences, offers the certificate programme Custodial Practice at University Collections . The content of the programme is tailored to the scientific collections of the CvO University and consists of the modules pb335 - Learning about things - university collections as teaching and learning objects (6KP, winter semester) and pb336 - Researching approaches to university collections (6KP, summer semester) for Bachelor's students. For Master's students, ipb958 (15KP, winter semester + summer semester) applies. Biology students choose the content identically via the modules bio777 (=pb335) and bio783 (=pb336).

In module pb335, students acquire knowledge about the history of university collections and their importance for scientific theory formation. They also gain an overview of the holdings of the CvO University with special attention to the specifics of a reform university. Students also learn how to develop their own research questions based on scientific enquiry at object and meta-level. To this end, students attend the seminar University Collections in Teaching and Research (2 SWS), a series of lectures on the university collections (1 SWS) and complete practical exercises on collection care (2 SWS) in the Textile Everyday Culture Collection.

In the subsequent module pb336, students attend a seminar related to the collection (2 SWS). In the collection internship (40 hours) that follows on from this, students work in the real-life operations of collection care (conservation measures, etc.) and are given space for research as part of their module examination. After successfully completing all module components, graduates receive a separate certificate for the programme.

ATTENTION: From the winter semester 2025, the certificate programme will be paused for the time being and the courses will no longer be offered regularly!

Do you have any questions? Please contact the coordinators of the certificate programme by email:

Dr Maria Will (IBU)

(STAK)