Leuchtturm vor dem Meer

Vision statement

We want to count among the leading universities of teacher education in Switzerland and the Lake Constance area. Our university offers not only formal degrees in education, but also numerous further training courses for teaching staff of all levels.

PHSG principles

  •  The PHSG is renowned both for its highly practice-based teacher training courses imparting subject-specific knowledge and didactic skills, and for its extensive pedagogic research activities.
  •  We champion innovation, and our work in this respect contributes significantly to the advancement of teacher training approaches and of the university itself. 
  • As a learning organisation, we work with a development plan that regularly undergoes both internal and external quality assessments. 
  • We want to be perceived by the public as a cultural institution with regional and transregional reach. 
  • We strive to involve all our staff and students in the process of deciding what the PHSG’s development strategy should be. 
  • We engage in continual dialogue with teachers and parties interested in the topic of education. 
  • We respect people’s differences and treat each other with care and appreciation. We tackle conflicts by discussing them openly and jointly working out constructive solutions
  • In everything we do, we stay true to the principles of sustainable development. 
  • We treat the human, natural and capital resources with which we work with care and consideration.
     

Degree courses and teacher induction programmes

  • We aim to provide our students with comprehensive training and a solid cultural education. Our courses therefore comprise not only intellectual components, but also personality development and artistic elements. 
  • We attach great importance to promoting scientific mindsets and strengthening our students’ capacity for action, cooperation and self-reflection. 
  • We support our students in their personality development, helping them to develop greater inner strength, open-mindedness and flexibility. 
  • We encourage manifold learning approaches and provide the corresponding technological aids. We consider self-directed, cooperative learning to be of key importance. 
  • We conduct some of the work experience components of our courses in the various regions. Here, our Regional Didactic Centres provide students with expert support in designing and planning their lessons. 
  • We also provide special advisory services and training programmes for students about to enter the teaching profession. We offer these in collaboration with the respective school authority. The teacher induction components of our courses take place in our various partner schools and Regional Didactic Centres.

Research and further education

  • Our research work focuses on a selection of pedagogic fields, within which we strive to establish the requisite methodological competence. 
  • We are in regular exchange with the international research community. 
  • We have long-standing cooperative partnerships with other institutions of higher education both at home and abroad, and with a range of education professionals. 
  • We develop high-quality, tailored products, which we provide to both the school-based and the non-school-based further education sectors. These products, which take the form of postgraduate modules, courses and degrees, including master’s degree programmes, enable people to acquire certified further qualifications and specialisations. 
  • We strive to become the most important further education partner for teachers from the canton of St.Gallen and the surrounding regions. 
  • We promote the development of our own PHSG staff, providing them with advisory services and further training measures, and enabling them to work across different specialist areas.

Strategy

Our PHSG 2015–2020 strategy is based on the four sub-strategies of «Teaching competence», «New challenges», «Areas of excellence» and «Cross-cutting topics». 

The «Teaching competence» sub-strategy focuses on one of the most important duties of a university of teacher education: imparting teaching competence. The objective here is to enable teaching students to effectively encourage all pupils in their care, no matter what their ability, to draw on their full potential during lessons.

The «New challenges» sub-strategy focuses on new challenges facing schools, teaching staff and teacher training organisations; challenges that arise due to changing societal needs. Such challenges include how to teach values within an increasingly multicultural society, and how to incorporate changes in things such as leisure-time behaviour, careers guidance approaches, people’s professional aspirations and business knowledge into teaching practice.

The «Areas of excellence» sub-strategy aims to consolidate and further develop the areas for which the PHSG is renowned. These areas are found across all levels of study and deal primarily with teaching, research, further education and service. With their wide national and international reach, these areas of excellence are one thing that truly set the PHSG’s apart.

The «Cross-cutting topics» sub-strategy comprises various projects through which the PHSG seeks to further build on its commitment to delivering top quality across all levels of study, and to facilitating systematic further training and qualification measures for its teaching staff. The PHSG encourages the active involvement of all its members in such projects. After all, achieving institutional accreditation will require the transformation of its quality development measures into a fully fledged quality management system.