Church University of Education Vienna / Krems

Church University of Education Vienna / Krems
founding	October 1, 2007
Sponsorship	Private
place	Vienna , Krems ( Austria )
Rector	Christoph Berger
Students	approx. 3500
Employee	370
Website	kphvie.ac.at

The Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule Wien / Krems provides basic and advanced training for teachers at the primary level as well as for religious teachers . With around 2500 initial training students, it is Austria's largest private university of education . In English translation it is called University College of Teacher Education of Christian Churches Vienna / Krems .

The Austrian “New Education for Teachers” from 2015

The so-called "NEW teacher training" began throughout Austria in autumn 2015 for the primary level. Now the teacher training colleges are responsible for training teachers for the primary level (six to ten year old children). This will replace the previously separate training of elementary and special school teachers. The teacher training course extends over four academic years (with 240  credits ). A quarter (60 credits) of the study program is dedicated to a focus to be chosen by the students, for example elementary education or inclusive education (with the concerns of the former special school, for children with special needs).

The training of teachers for the secondary level (children and young people from 10 years of age), i.e. for the new middle schools and the higher schools, has been taking place at or in close cooperation with universities since autumn 2016. In the North-East Association (Vienna and Lower Austria), the study program is managed by the University of Vienna , with teacher training colleges providing offers with their professors.

The advanced training of teachers for the primary and secondary level is mainly offered by teacher training colleges.

Education and training of religious teachers

Religion is also a possible focus in primary school education, whereby the KPH Wien / Krems offers religion for six different denominations or religions: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Free Church, Islamic and Alevi.

The presence of these different religious communities favors diverse encounters, for example in working groups, as well as selective cooperation. The respective religious identity is preserved, the individual religious communities design their own training program. At the KPH Vienna / Krems there are seven Christian sponsoring churches; Since 2014, the KPH has also been cooperating with other monotheistic religious communities represented in Austria. The KPH is thus developing into a "university of religions".

This multireligiousness also affects the advanced training for religious teachers offered at KPH Wien / Krems. In addition to the specific program of the individual denominations and religions, learning in encounter (this is the title of a special series of seminars) is also aimed for: The representatives of different religions explain the approaches to topics such as fasting, cemetery, migration and others.

The advanced training also includes the course offered by the individual religions and denominations for the extraordinary qualification to give religious instruction (with only 15 credits), in which teaching students and graduates who belong to the respective church or religious community can participate. This extends their ability to teach to the subject of religion.

Foundation of KPH Vienna / Krems

The KPH Wien / Krems was founded on October 1st, 2007 by the Archdiocese of Vienna . The pedagogical colleges created at that time replaced the pedagogical academies and led to significant changes in teacher training and further training. The Bologna Process made it possible to offer courses in module form. One year after graduation, the curricula themselves and the module grid were adapted.

Eight previously independent institutions were merged into KPH Wien / Krems, including the Pedagogical and Religious Education Academies of the Archdiocese of Vienna and the Diocese of St. Pölten as well as the Religious Education Academy and the Religious Education Institute of the Evangelical Church in Austria. The Old Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church of Eastern and Southeastern Europe and three oriental churches joined, so that the university is now run by seven churches in ecumenical sponsorship, which is considered a unique project in Europe.

Carrier and cooperation partner

Archdiocese of Vienna as legal entity

The Archdiocese of Vienna established the KPH Wien / Krems and maintains it together with the Diocese of St. Pölten as well as the Evangelical, the Greek-Oriental, the three Oriental-Orthodox and the Old Catholic Church of Austria.

The KPH Wien / Krems is a Catholic university institution as an institution of the legal entity "University Foundation of the Archdiocese of Vienna". The managing director of the university foundation is Katja Pistauer-Fischer. The KPH Wien / Krems is both a recognized educational institution within the meaning of the Austrian University Act of 2005 and a recognized post-secondary educational institution within the meaning of the University Act of 2002.

Other Catholic-Church-sponsored pedagogical universities in Austria are the KPH Graz , the KPH Edith Stein (of the dioceses in western Austria : Innsbruck, Salzburg, Feldkirch) and the PH of the Diocese of Linz .

Partner churches

KPH Wien / Krems has seven sponsoring or partner churches:

• Catholic Church : Archdiocese of Vienna and Diocese of St. Pölten .
• Old Catholic Church : It cooperates with the Evangelical Church in the training of religious teachers.
• Evangelical Church AB and HB
• Greek-Oriental Church : These five churches in Eastern and Southeastern Europe recognized in Austria are mostly referred to as the "Orthodox Church". They work closely together in religious education in schools: the Bulgarian , Greek , Romanian , Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches .
• Oriental Orthodox Churches : These three, mostly designated as “Oriental” churches, recognized in Austria, are counted separately; in training religious teachers at the KPH, they cooperate with the Orthodox Church: the Armenian Apostolic Church , the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church .

Cooperation partner

The KPH cooperates with several religious communities recognized in Austria that do not belong to the group of sponsors. The cooperation partners represent Islam , the Alevis , the free churches and Judaism . In November 2017, a cooperation with the Austrian Buddhist Religious Society was agreed, i.e. for the first time with a non-theistic religion. With this current expansion, 12 of the 16 legally recognized religious communities in Austria will be represented at the KPH Vienna / Krems.

Rectorate and University Council

The KPH Wien / Krems is managed by the Rectorate . The rector is Christoph Berger, who was also elected chairman of the rectors' conference of the Austrian universities of teacher education in January 2018 and replaces Erwin Rauscher from the PH Lower Austria .

The three Vice Rectors have specific areas of responsibility: Andrea Taschl-Erber is responsible for religious education, Andreas Weissenbäck for teaching and Thomas Krobath for research.

The university council includes representatives from all sponsoring churches, around 20 people in total. He has a steering and supervisory function; In particular, he appoints the rectorate and professors, decides on the content of the curricula and the annual budget. The chairperson of the university council is Andrea Pinz (head of the education authority of the Archdiocese of Vienna), the deputy is Karl Schiefermair (evangelical senior church councilor ).

Institutes, advice centers and practical schools

Institutes

The importance of religions at KPH Wien / Krems is also shown by the fact that around half of its institutes are religion-related:

• Institute for Education Vienna
• Institute for Training Krems
• Institute for Christian Religion: This institute encompasses Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Free Church religious education.
• Institute for Islamic Religion
• Institute for Jewish Religion
• Institute for Alevi Religion
• Institute for Buddhist Religion
• Institute for advanced training
• Institute for Research and Development: In addition to a number of largely one to two-year research projects, there is the special research area "Interreligiosity"
• Center for further education

Advisory centers

As a pedagogical university, KPH Wien / Krems is dedicated to the practical aspects of school operations. It operates advice centers for:

• Talent development and innovation
• digitalization
• Health promotion and job satisfaction of educators
• Entrepreneurship Education and value-based business didactics
• Sustainability and spirituality
• School development and leadership

Practice schools

The KPH Wien / Krems has three practical schools where students also teach:

• Primary school in Vienna-Strebersdorf
• Practice New Middle School Vienna-Strebersdorf
• Primary school in Krems-Mitterau

Locations

The main building, which is also the postal address of KPH Vienna / Krems, with the library and the offices of many employees, is in Strebersdorf, on the northern border of Vienna:

Campus Vienna-Strebersdorf

The address is Mayerweckstraße 1 . This building has a long prehistory: The training of religious and literary teachers offered by the “Religious Education Academy” of the Archdiocese of Vienna, which was founded in 1971, initially took place at different locations in Vienna, until the diocese finally decided to rebuild today's large building “Am alten Auweg “Decided in Strebersdorf. Gradually, the individual facilities were merged at this new location.

There are also four other important locations of institutes of the KPH Vienna / Krems.

Krems-Mitterau campus

The campus with the address Dr. Gschmeidler-Strasse 28 in Krems-Mitterau was originally the “Pedagogical Academy Krems”, which was opened in 1968 as the first Pedagogical Academy in Austria for prospective teachers from the diocese of St. Pölten.

In 2012 the campus area was completely renovated and a new student dormitory was built there. The 185 living spaces are not only available to KPH students, but also to other trainees.

Campus Vienna-Gersthof

The Evangelical Center is located at Severin-Schreiber-Gasse 1–3 in Gersthof in the north-west of Vienna. KPH Wien / Krems has been represented at this location since it was founded in 2007. This is where the training of Protestant religion teachers takes place. In 2013, she opened a center for further training on her premises, which later moved to the Singerstraße training center.

Campus Vienna-Eitnergasse

In the south of Vienna, at Eitnergasse 6 , is the "Institute for Islamic Religion" (formerly known as the "Islamic Religious Education Academy").

Education center Stephansplatz

The so-called “Curhaus” at Stephansplatz 3 and 3a is located in the center of Vienna, next to St. Stephen's Cathedral . It was built in 1740 as the “Curhaus” and houses the KPH educational center Stephansplatz at No. 3 on the third floor.

Lacknergasse education center

On September 1, 2017, the Lacknergasse Education Center became part of the School Foundation of the Archdiocese of Vienna. In autumn 2018, among other things, the Center for Further Education of KPH Wien / Krems started operations here and in September 2019 the Institute for Further Education.

Singerstrasse education center

The KPH education center at Singerstraße 7 houses the “Center for Further Education” and is located in the Teutonic Order House , on stair 4, in the immediate vicinity of the Stephansplatz education center.

literature

• Josef Kurzreiter: Idea and Shape. Published by the Pedagogical Academy of the Archdiocese of Vienna, 1978 yearbook. Vienna 1978
• Elisabeth Hartel: The Religious Education Academy Vienna. Its origin and development from 1971 to 2001. Diploma thesis at the Religious Education Institute of the Archdiocese of Vienna. Vienna 2002
• Johannes Martschin (editor): KPH Vienna / Krems, teaching and learning with perspective. ( Information brochure , published by the Rectorate of the KPH Vienna / Krems.) Vienna 2016

Web links

• Website of the Church University of Vienna / Krems

Individual evidence

1. ↑ New teacher training. In: bmb.gv.at. Federal Ministry of Education, accessed on December 23, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Learning in encounter. (PDF; 689 kB) In: Website of the KPH Vienna / Krems. Retrieved December 11, 2017 . 
3. ^ Rectorate of KPH Vienna, Krems (ed.): First University Yearbook . Vienna / Krems 2009.
4. ↑ Doris Helmberger: "The future lies in togetherness" . In: The furrow . No. 8/2016 . Vienna February 25, 2016, p. 15 ( scan [PDF; 1.6 MB ; accessed on February 14, 2018]).
5. ↑ It is a higher education institution within the meaning of the Codex Iuris Canonici , Canons 807–814, and the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae of 1990. - Set out in the statute of the KPH Vienna / Krems.
6. ↑ See University Act of 2005, Sections 4 to 7, and University Act of 2002 (Federal Law Gazette I, No. 120), Section 51, Paragraph 2, Line 1.
7. ↑ The United Methodist Church , which works closely with the Evangelical Church, one of the supporting churches of the KPH, and three rather exclusive special communities : Mormons , New Apostolic Church and Jehovah's Witnesses are missing .
8. ^ Schiefermair, Prof. Mag. Karl (clergyman high church councilor). In: evang.at. Evangelical Church AuHB in Austria, accessed on April 4, 2018 . 
9. ^ Curhaus. In: dompfarre.info. Dompfarre St. Stephan, accessed on December 10, 2019 . 

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap