What should we learn when everything is changing?
Semester question 2025/26: What should we learn when everything is changing?
In a rapidly changing world, the future of education and learning is coming into sharper focus. What competences must young people cultivate to remain empowered in an era defined by AI, climate change, overlapping crises and social upheaval? How is the role of schooling and subject-specific education shifting in a landscape where information is just one “chat” or click away, anytime, anywhere, but not to all? Are there ‘timeless’ fundamentals of knowledge and learning we should continue to rely on?
Academic research offers crucial impetus for shaping school education and lifelong learning, so that citizens may be better equipped for the future. At the University of Vienna, researchers from various disciplines are examining key aspects of this future, such as the role of schools as social spaces, democratic education, resilience, digital and media literacy, educational equity, subject-specific and interdisciplinary learning, and the increasingly urgent question of how hard-earned knowledge can be effectively acquired, preserved and passed on. The semester question invites us to reflect upon and debate what education today can - and ought - to be.
About the Semester question
Each semester, the University of Vienna poses its academics a question that is of particular relevance to today’s society. You can find all current contributions by the University of Vienna’s academics in the Rudolphina magazine (in German) or on our social media channels under #Semesterfrage. The University of Vienna runs this project in cooperation with the Austrian daily newspaper "Der Standard" – starting with online contributions and ending with a closing event at the end of the semester.