Students refer to a text in an Early Modern Science seminar.
A private college for the public good The liberal arts institution Bard College Berlin brings students from all over the world to Germany’s buzzing capital and inspires them to not only explore their individual academic interests, but also to link higher education with civic engagement. Bard College Berlin is an academic community for tomorrow’s leaders, artists and critical thinkers. TEXT: MARILENA STRACKE I PHOTOS: DANIEL KOVÁCS
Bard College Berlin offers US and German accredited undergraduate programmes within a small university community tucked away in a green area in north Berlin. Perfect to focus on studying whilst only being 30 minutes away from the centre of an important European metropolis. The college is particularly exciting for students with a passion for civic engagement and those who want to explore the 70 | Issue 76 | July 2019
connections between disciplines such as politics and the arts. Here, students can specialise in economics, politics, art history, practising arts and literature, but outside of the specialisation the college offers courses in a broad range of subjects such as philosophy, creative writing, photography, migration studies or statistics with a coding component. “All of these courses are open to students regardless of what their main academic
focus is,” head of admissions Stephanie Hausotter explains. “For instance, an economics student can take a dance class or a politics student who may be interested in doing journalism in the future, can take photography classes and learn to use a dark room. The degrees are structured in such a way that students have electives built into their study as well as internship options.” The college encourages civic engagement projects also, with university grants. The ‘Bard Berlin Goes Green’ initiative, for example, started with a student trying out economic principles she had learned in class. She put up signs around campus informing people of how much food, water and electricity was wasted on a monthly basis and then introduced ways