Summer schools: Use the summer to broaden your networks and get up to date

LMU lays on dozens of summer schools every year. Many of them are classic courses that are repeated year after year simply because of their resounding success. Yet new formats are also added each year – „Gender in Society, Media and Politics“ being one of them this year, for example. The idea for this latter school grew out of a network meeting, initiator Dr. Nadine Zwiener-Collins of the Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science (GSI) tells us.

“We wanted to give students too greater visibility regarding gender research across disciplinary boundaries,” she explains. Gender research, she says, is often put down as irrelevant, unscientific or ideologically motivated. “That was why it was important for me to use the summer school as a space for well-founded, critical and interdisciplinary dialogue.” Zwiener-Collins notes that interest has been overwhelming.

Dialogue between science and practice

Back in 2010, the initiative for a summer school grew out of an international workshop on the topic of Evidence-Based Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine. Why? Because although there are many advanced training courses available worldwide on the subject of evidence-based medicine, there are few that tackle evidence-based decision-making in the sphere of public health. “We wanted to close this gap with the summer school,” says Professor Eva Rehfuess, Chair of Public Health and Healthcare Research and founder of the summer school..

The programs on offer target researchers and managers at public health bodies such as the Robert Koch Institute and the World Health Organization – people that can benefit from dialogue between academia and practitioners. “Alongside attractive content and the assortment of tuition formats, people very much appreciate the varied sideline program and the collegial atmosphere,” notes Dr. Lisa Pfadenhauer, who holds primary responsibility for planning the content and coordinating eleven lecturers.

The Faculty for the Study of Culture regularly organizes an exceptional summer school: Participants visit a ten-day festival held by the Sanskrit theater Kutiyattam in India.

Already familiar with the world-famous festival from her many years of field research, Dr. Elisa Ganser of the Institute of Indology and Tibetology decided to combine attendance of the performances, the reading of original Sanskrit manuscripts, classical acting techniques and visits to historical places as a ten-day summer school. “This goes far beyond the boundaries of traditional academic teaching formats,” she notes. Many former participants have since returned to India again and again, immersing themselves in the culture, ritual practices and regional history. The cost has to be borne by each individual themselves, but taking part does accumulate ECTS points.

Strong demand at the Open Science Center

A hybrid summer school is organized by LMU’s interdisciplinary Open Science Center. “Every year we provide a compact basic package that helps junior academics find their way into transparent and replicable research,” Dr. Malika Ihle stresses, adding that academic integrity is more important than ever in our present day and age. This is reflected in strong demand that is more than double the number of places available.

“After the summer school, the participants often emerge as dedicated advocates of open science within their departments, or even across their entire faculties,” Ihle says. Accordingly, this year’s summer school will also include a focus on training multipliers. While organizing the schools is very time-consuming, structured templates have made things considerably easier over the years. In 2023, Ihle and her team were given a one-off grant of 15,000 euros from the LMU Fund to Promote Teaching. Most of the work is done on a voluntary basis, however, and participation is free of charge.

Promoting greater diversity in mathematical philosophy

At the Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies, the initiative „Widening Participation in Mathematical Philosophy“ began holding summer schools to promote diversity in mathematical philosophy in 2024. This approach is rooted in an earlier program for female students and is intended for bachelor’s and master’s degree students. “Our aim is to encourage diversity in what, demographically, is still not a very diverse discipline, and to contribute to a more inclusive academic environment,” explains Cordelia Berz, who works on the organizational team.

For many participants, Berz says, the one-week program is the first opportunity to encounter formal philosophy within a framework that specifically seeks to provide support and encouragement. A fee of 80 euros is charged for participation.

Participants from around the globe

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LMU also lays on a number of other summer programs, such as the Munich Advanced Course in International Law at the Faculty of Law and the French-German Summer Schoolat the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

That said, most of the programs are presented by the Munich International Summer University (MISU), which has been organized for 27 years by former LMU students who belong to the International University Club Munich (IUCM). In the summer alone, 15 programs covering all kinds of disciplines are on offer – including business management, data science and the biosciences. And then there are the summer language courses organized by the International Office.

“From the inception of the MISU until the interruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the number of participants increased continually,” says IUCM’s Susanne Gerlach. “And thankfully, numbers have been on the rise again since 2022.” Right now, what is lacking is affordable accommodation for the participants from 80 different countries.

Alongside the personal encounters that the accompanying cultural program for every summer school brings with it, Gerlach sees the GSI’s EU Studies Program, headed by Professor Klaus H. Goetz, as a particular highlight. “Political changes in the world allow the students who come here from many nations to discover contrasts and common ground in a single course. In this way, they can cultivate greater understanding for each other.”