A wide range of academic educational programmes for everyone, excellent support, flexible online study and practical expertise: this is what the C3L – Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Oldenburg – has stood for since 2006. Around 150 invited guests from the worlds of business, politics and academia celebrated this milestone anniversary yesterday at the hallig hanken.
“With the founding of the C3L in 2006 as a permanent centre for further education, the University of Oldenburg set new standards nationwide,” emphasised University President Prof. Dr Ralph Bruder yesterday at the celebratory event at the hallig hanken. Over the past 20 years, the centre has professionalised further education and strengthened the link between vocational and academic education. “In view of the rapid changes in the world of work, lifelong learning will continue to grow in importance. The C3L is ideally positioned to meet this need.”
“The C3L opens up the university to as many people as possible and develops innovative formats for teaching and learning,” explained Prof. Dr Olaf Zawacki-Richter, Executive Director of the C3L, at the event. “As an interface between higher education, the world of work and society, we facilitate scientifically sound and practice-oriented further education throughout all stages of life.” Since its foundation in 2006, many thousands of people have taken advantage of the C3L’s educational programmes for their professional and personal development. Last year, there were 609 part-time students, 907 participants in further education programmes and 1,466 auditors.
Among those present at the celebratory event at the hallig hanken were Lower Saxony’s Minister for Science, Falko Mohrs, and Oldenburg’s Lord Mayor, Jürgen Krogmann. The central question of the event was: How can education shape the future in an age of artificial intelligence, social change and new learning cultures? This was accompanied by a lecture by futurologist and author Kai Gondlach, as well as a panel discussion featuring Vera Weidemann, Chief Human Resources Officer at EWE AG; Heiko Kroon, Head of Human Resources at Oldenburg University Hospital; and Prof. Dr Anke Hanft, founder of the C3L.
The C3L – Centre for Lifelong Learning – has existed in its current form since 2006. However, adult education has been part of the University of Oldenburg’s profile from the very beginning. As early as 1974, the ‘Contact Point for Advanced Scientific Training’ (later: Centre for Advanced Scientific Training) was established with the aim of providing as many people as possible with access to academically sound further education. In the decades that followed, the university opened its doors to non-traditional students in many ways. The university also set new standards in researching new learning formats, for example when it began using e-learning as early as the 1990s.
When the C3L was established in 2006, it incorporated the university’s own institutions, such as the Centre for Advanced Scientific Training, the Centre for Distance Learning (founded in 1978) and the ‘Centre for Distributed E-Learning’ (founded in 2001). Today, the C3L’s programmes reach a wide variety of groups within the population, including working people, children and older people. Five part-time degree programmes and around 50 further education programmes at university level cover fields such as management and law, health and social care, education and science, psychotherapy, and energy and sustainability. A defining feature of these programmes is the integration of academic theory and practical application, as well as a flexible online learning format combined with compact face-to-face workshops.
