Goethe University Summer School: Lessons in psychology and post-colonial activism

Eight students from all over the world sit upright in front of their screens.

It is 6 p.m. for the two young women from Japan, 11 a.m. for the Spaniard, 7 p.m. for the Indonesian and 5 p.m. for the student from China.

The group meditates.

They are supervised by Aljoscha Dreisörner, a doctoral student at the University of Frankfurt.

He teaches the “Organizational Behavior” course, a two-week course at the Goethe University Summer School.

Usually the students come to Frankfurt for the summer school, get to know the city and complete their courses at the university.

But that's not possible this year due to Corona.

Those willing to learn stay at home and connect online with the lecturers at the Goethe University - for 500 euros per course.

Direct feedback for the participants

The seminar “Organizational Behavior” teaches how human action influences the functioning and effectiveness of organizations.

And how understanding psychological processes can help managers achieve an organization's goals.

This day is about positive organizational behavior.

So: how do you motivate yourself?

What role does hope play in this?

How important is resilience?

For this purpose, the students learn, for example, mindfulness exercises - such as meditation - and how to set meaningful goals.

But why should you spend 500 euros on an online program in English at a German university when there are courses on all sorts of topics free of charge on the Internet, even from elite universities such as Harvard and Oxford?

An important argument: unlike the online courses, which can be viewed like a video free of charge, the summer school program is live.

So you have direct contact with the students and the lecturer, who always deals with the participants of the course.

For example, when it comes to discipline.

Dreisorn asks what it looks like in Japanese and Chinese cultures.

The students can report on their own experiences or receive direct feedback when it comes to setting their own goals.

Summer School wants to expand

The Spaniard Gonzalo Revuelta also takes part in the course. He decided on the summer school because the courses on offer corresponded exactly to his interests and he would like to come into contact with students and teachers from other cultures. The Goethe University is a “top university in an important European city,” he says. He finds the 500 euros for the course a fair price: He enjoys every lecture, especially because the concepts are taught with a practical approach and you interact a lot with each other in the courses. Revuelta hopes to visit Frankfurt one day. The course gives him the first points of contact.

The summer school wants to expand.

It was launched in 2014 with three courses, this year there are 14 courses, all of them digital.

A total of 103 students from 46 countries take part.

Coordinator Patrick Stark thinks the summer school is also attractive for professors at Goethe University: They could give their academic staff their first international teaching experience, try out new teaching approaches and make contact with students from foreign colleagues.

Exchange with other universities

The courses offered reflect the lecturers' respective research interests. For example, courses on post-colonial feminist theory and activism (a request from the FAZ to participate was rejected) or on artificial intelligence come about. In addition, the summer school promotes exchanges with other universities. For example, for two students from the United States who take part in the summer school, one Goethe University student can study in the United States for one semester - without having to pay tuition fees. “It was a challenge to coordinate the different time zones,” says Stark. But there are also some advantages to holding the courses online. Students who cannot afford the travel costs or who have obligations at home could still take part.This year the number of Japanese students is unusually high: six of the 103 participants are Japanese. Eight live in China, seven in Turkey. The largest group was still made up of students from Europe.

In addition to the thematic courses, you can also learn German over a period of four weeks. Summer School students spend a lot of time together online. This creates a kind of cohesion between the participants - also via the Internet, which bridges the distance of several thousand kilometers.