Mindful University

Stress and psychological strain are prevalent phenomena in modern Western societies and are also playing an increasingly significant role amongst students. Mindfulness and resilience therefore play a key role in latest approaches to organisational development. They are also regarded as so-called ‘future skills’. In the corporate sector, there are already a wide range of initiatives designed to reduce stress and build resilience. By contrast, such activities at universities are relatively rare and, to date, have generally been organised in a rather unsystematic manner.

The ‘Mindful Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences’ project is developing measures to promote resilience and mindfulness at both the individual and organisational levels at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. The research project examines a renewal of the teaching, learning and educational culture at universities in light of the drastically changed framework conditions in a VUCA world (from the English: volatility, ‘volatility’ (instability), uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity ) and the highly disruptive and transformative developments in society.

The “Mindful University” research project sees itself as a knowledge-transfer initiative guided by the “Whole-Organisation” approach, which does not stop at the organisational boundaries of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, but extends beyond them to encompass all higher education institutions in Hesse. The findings from the research project are being used, as part of the collaboration with the nationwide ‘Mindful University’ initiative, to establish and support a Hesse-wide network in parallel. The aim is to continuously improve the concepts and methods and to develop further ideas and approaches.