CODE University - the start-up incubator at Kalle Neukölln

Even Berlin's mayor was there when CODE University its new campus in Kalle Neukölln in the fall. CODE has given studying a new life. It goes without saying that very special spaces were needed for this. The converted parking lot in the university now resides is part of Kalle Neukölln, a revitalized department store on Karl-Marx-Straße that stood empty for years and has now developed into a huge social hub. The university was launched in 2017 to create a completely new type of education - with a strong focus on future founders. Today, 500 young people study here, entirely in English. Why was Neukölln chosen? What can students expect at the new campus? And how is CODE University revolutionizing learning in the 21st century? Managing Director Reimar Müller-Thum answers these and other questions in our interview.

At the opening ceremony, Mayor Kai Wegner said that it was a bold move to go to Neukölln. Do you agree?

Yes, absolutely. I also think that's what connects us with the makers of Kalle - if you break new ground, you always have to have a little courage. At the same time, we see the potential of the district, which is constantly itself. We want to help improve its image. Our university should be a place where people from different cultures can meet and exchange ideas. Neukölln is simply perfect for this. The neighborhood with its many cultures, its bars and restaurants, which are famous far beyond Berlin's city limits, is already unique and enriches us immensely. But I also think that our students enrich the neighborhood the other way around. In that sense, it's a win-win situation.

What do you like best about your new campus?

Overall, the Kalle provides the perfect backdrop for a future-oriented university - both from the outside and the inside. What was particularly important to us was an open and flexible design of the rooms. I think the classic lecture hall is dead. And in our case it is also superfluous, because we have established completely different forms of learning. We offer our students learning spaces that adapt to their needs. With instruments, games and an open kitchen. The developers of Kalle Neukölln, the MREI team, have a start-up background themselves, so we quickly agreed on what we wanted to do.

What does the Kalle that other places don't?

The different nature of the whole building with huge terraces and an interior that we were able to design ourselves. We're still living on a building site at the moment, but it already good. I think when it's finished, we'll be able to really let off steam. The Kalle Halle will be a fantastic canteen and will certainly be more varied than at other universities. Or we could move a seminar to the rooftop with a view of new horizons over Berlin - I don't know of many buildings in Berlin, or indeed anywhere, that offer such a combination. There are also other tenants such as Smartvillage and Delta, which are highly connectable, so that we also have a micro-ecosystem in the building with which our students can develop further.

'Modern university seeks modern location' - or what was the decisive factor for the move?

Our old location in Kreuzberg was more of a temporary solution right from the start. It was a coworking space that gave us a quick start and a lot of flexibility, but didn't meet our requirements in the long term. We had long been looking for a place where we could develop and live out new ideas. And when Tom, the founder of the university, told me about Kalle for the first time, I was immediately enthusiastic. The concept images were still very different from the building site at the time, but I had the feeling right from the start that it would fit. And a year later, we moved in.

You were looking for an open and flexible design and not the classic lecture hall - What will replace it for you?

We configured it completely on our own, together with our interior designer, and that's how It has also been implemented. To exaggerate, our lecture halls are the telephone booth where students their calls, because we work in a more nomadic and hybrid way. That starts with us during our studies. In reality, it's the group study room with three or four chairs, because its all about learning from and with each other. That's much more important to us than the large rooms. In my opinion, the traditional lecture hall is simply dead.

...where someone stands in front and presents something?

Exactly. We can open up our rooms for larger events and then we sometimes have 180 people in one room. In normal day-to-day learning and teaching, we don't have more than 15-20 people in a room, which can go down to five in workshop sessions.

The number of start-ups in Germany has stagnated since the pandemic. CODE University explicitly focuses on entrepreneurship - how can it counteract this trend?

By providing an environment that enables young people with an idea to start a business. By connecting mentors and investors, we have an optimal environment, and it keeps getting better as more companies move into the building. Our neighbors in the building have been tightly curated to make it almost a tech startup hub. So it's an ideal biotope for our university.

A state university cannot offer this because, for example, it lacks connections to the business world?

The state universities lack a lot compared to us. CODE emerged from an entrepreneurial network, so the entrepreneurial or business network is part of everyday life for us. Other universities have to really stretch themselves to be able to offer anything at all in this form. We basically have that in our circle of shareholders.

...which goes back to the contacts of the founder of CODE University, Tom Bachem. How did it come about that you took over the management from him?

I have been the university with interest since it was founded. Precisely because I think that the traditional university model has had its day. It simply can no longer meet the demands of today's talents and tomorrow's managers, or at least not as well. But things are different here, our teaching approach is unique in the world. When Tom asked me if I would like to take over the management, I didn't hesitate for a second.

Why do you think the traditional university model has had its day?

The traditional university system is ultimately about learning according to a plan. With the introduction of Bachelor's and Master's degree courses, studying has become more school-based and in this respect nothing to do with the studies of the past, namely the independent acquisition of knowledge. You learn along a path that someone has developed for you who thought they knew what best for you. Just like in schools, universities test what you have learned. This is not the way high potentials of the present
and future want to learn.

How do you identify high potentials?

Students who prefer pre-chewed knowledge are definitely not in the right place with us. Last but not least, we have a recruitment test that a real challenge. High potentials want self-determined learning, they want to explore topics at their own pace. It's more about how I learn than what I learn. So for us, it's not about memorizing, but about acquiring skills and abilities and learning together, with and from each other. We think this is more contemporary and more motivating because the students are at the
center and can and even have to decide for themselves.

Does this personalized approach come at a high cost?

We actually suffer somewhat from the reputation of supposedly being a university for 'rich kids'. But that's pretty garbage, because what counts for us is talent, approach and innovative strength. Our selection process is not without its challenges. That's why we also have various scholarship programs and financing models.

So, it’s more about learning to find your own path than following someone else’s?

Exactly. And that's also what we encourage: That people have the will to pursue things, stick with them and develop a tenacity to persevere. These are topics that are at the forefront of our studies. Above all, we focus on projects by the students themselves. They can work on them from the first semester and across all modules. You won't find this level of practical integration in a degree course anywhere else. It is not uncommon for our students to found their own startup before graduating. And yes: we see every start-up that comes out of our university as a success.

Do students arrive with ideas or develop them at CODE?

We have both. However, the reality is that not all of us are founders, but about ten percent are. Around 70 percent of students then work with the ten percent on their ideas and start-ups. You never found a company alone. Then there are perhaps another 20 percent who neither want to found nor work for a start-up and would rather look around for companies. Which is fine, it's not for nothing that we have a partnership with Porsche and Deutsche Telekom.

How does project work at CODE function?

If someone has an idea, it is often someone who is already self-taught in software development. They then come to us and ultimately have the opportunity to shape their studies their idea and learn what they need to develop it. Perhaps a student only has a database at first and doesn't yet know what to do with it.

And how do students become successful founders?

Well - that evolves. For example, the student can first get inspiration from other students and professors and in the second semester perhaps think about how to towards a communication platform with the database. Then comes the third semester, and he looks at the market for chat systems and what is actually needed there and does more business studies and a module on business plans. That's the unique thing CODE, which I don't know of any other university, that you can structure your studies so blatantly that you can decide in each semester which subjects you actually want to study. Basically, with our 500 students, there are 500 forms of study - to exaggerate. This is a contemporary approach, and the success of our university proves us right.

The interview was conducted by Constanze von Kettler from the public relations agency TEAM CODE ZERO.

(Source: TEAM CODE ZERO, 12|03|2024 | "New campus in Neukölln -CODE University - the start-up incubator at Kalle Neukölln")

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