Citizens meet scienceTHGA - a university committed to social responsibility

THGA has pledged itself to three missions. Our First Mission is teaching and educating students; our Second Mission is research and innovation, and our Third Mission is our commitment to social responsibility. No university is an island (or an ivory tower). We encourage frequent encounters with citizens, companies and politicians as we learn from each other. In addition to our mission of education we are committed to enabling special target groups such as educational climbers or people with a refugee background to take on a university career. Moreover, we get children and young people interested in STEM subjects.

Our key aim is to increase the transfer of research results into society: state-of-the-art insights and scientific expertise are made available to develop solutions for the societal issues of our time. THGA strives to be a hub for the general public welcoming a dialogue among all people interested, so we create the spaces and formats for that.

Thus we implement our goal to continually develop the Third Mission activities and endeavours at our university: employees and students will be encouraged and supported in their social commitment.

THGA is active in several cooperations and networks. We work closely togther with the City of Bochum, the district government in Arnsberg and the employment agency in Bochum. In addition, we also collaborate in Bochum's university network UniverCity. This is also the network where we found our partners for the BO-I-T institute of technology, an extra-university institution for research and development. Another important partner is the trade union of the mining, chemical and energy industries, IG BCE. 

Thansk to the sponsoring of DMT e.V., THGA was able to launch the project Hidden Champions³: its purpose is to motivate employees of small and medium-sized companies to start their own university career by doing a part-time degree. Since summer 2019 THGA has also been a member of the research exchange programme of the ministry of eduction (Forschungsbörse) where researchers tour class rooms to present their research topics. Moreover, we contribute to the children's university in Bochum (KinderUni) and enable our graduates to apply for the attribution of the professional title EUR-ING in collaboration with the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI).