Winners of the 2009 Ideas Competition

From about 80 proposals the interdisciplinary jury for 2009 awarded prizes to eight ideas.
The many successful ideas shows the huge interest and commitment of the students to participating in shaping their own studies and in finding solutions.
On the principle that good ideas should not just end up being put aside, all realisable proposals will again in fact be implemented this year too.

The top prizes went to:

1st Prize (€1,000):
„Hosts in Göttingen“ – Project for a better integration of foreign students
This proposal looked at the lives of many foreign students in Göttingen, who would very much appreciate ties to local families, so as to get closer to “typical” Germans. The concept involves an agency to provide host families which themselves are interested in providing insight into their lives.

2nd Prize (€750):
Communication - problem- and question-orientated guidelines for students (not arranged according to institutions)
The idea involves the production of a brochure to be presented by the university at the outset of study, which offers a problem and question-oriented guideline for key issues and contacts at the university.

3rd Prize (€500):
Knowledge on Request- a knowledge pool on give-and-take basis
The proposal deals with the question of how to inform students in a structured way about research projects that run in parallel to the normal courses. The goal of this would be to integrate this personal “Knowledge on Request” of the students into everyday studies, without pressure, for example by organising series of presentations.

Gifts were also awarded in acknowledgement of good ideas and commitment to improvement of study conditions for:

Concept for „Lecturer mentoring“
Beautification of the Central Lecture Building
Building a student/alumni network and founding a laboratory for free software
Provision of an integrative project management software as a basis for studies, graduation and scientific working as well as as a basis for a transdisciplinary social university network including alumni functions
Copying, Printing und Scanning for Students