The Project

Courses from the “Leonardo” project are open to all students, regardless of which subject area you come from or which semester you are currently studying in. Leonardo gives you the opportunity to engage with content that comes from other subject cultures or spans disciplinary boundaries. However, interdisciplinarity not only refers to the type of content we offer, but also to the experience of interacting with students and lecturers from other disciplines, which is made possible as part of our courses. Through this interaction, students can recognize the limits of their own discipline and learn to appreciate other disciplines with different approaches.

The creation of such spaces for interaction in which you can exchange ideas and try things out together with students from other disciplines, lecturers and other exciting personalities in a protected environment, outside the usual specialist contexts and disciplinary peer groups, and sometimes outside the lecture hall and seminar room, is a fundamental requirement of the project. After all, in a pluralistic and increasingly polarized society, interaction with actors beyond the familiar horizon of experience is indispensable for shaping society’s future.

The responsibility of science is reflected in all courses. To this end, our work is always geared towards a holistic and impartial approach to relevant topics. We want to learn to form well-founded opinions: Object-oriented and differentiated, based on the knowledge and skills learned during our studies. The United Nations’ system of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is of particular importance here. Within this framework, global challenges are identified that are characterized by the SDGs as relevant and in particular need of a solution.

We deliberately refrain from requiring specialist knowledge for the selected content in order to enable all RWTH students to participate. Courses should have as few barriers as possible. Where specialist knowledge or background information is required to a certain extent in order to understand more complex contexts, this will be provided as part of the course.

At the same time, participation also means the positive freedom to take part in “Leonardo” courses: Even those who wish to complete their studies within the standard period of study and are committed to the project alongside their studies should have the opportunity to engage with the content of the project as part of their studies.