MUN is a worldwide practice of simulation games in which participants take over the role of an international delegate representing a country in a simulated committee of the UN. It is a very challenging and pedagogically valuable practice that attracted a huge network of educational institutions training for and conducting MUNs. Today, more than 400.000 people participate in MUNs each year.

The project PATRAPO extends this network to an intra-European cooperation for training for MUNs. For the time being, such a structure does not exist. The advantages of such a joint structure are the mutual support, possible synergy effects, and the widening of the respective horizons to different input and experiences. Besides it furthers intra-European relations and fosters EU values.

Participating in MUN allows Students the acquisition of key knowledge on the UN and International Relations as well as skills in debating, writing and presentation. This particular combination of knowledge transfer bridges theory and practice. MUN can be called a skill alliance that helps to close the gap between universities and specific political and administrative institutions.

The seminars and MUN represent active-learning models that encourage a paradigm shift in teaching and learning by focusing on learning by doing. This will improve learning outcomes, provide students with self-empowerment as it promotes and rewards teachers by shifting their role to an advisory position within a network of advisors.

Students will be involved in the joint blended MUN training seminar in various ways. They will prepare for and work in the seminar individually, in pairs or in groups with students from their university but also from the other partners. They will conduct their research, create presentations and lectures as well as input on various topics, engage in active debates and practice public speaking (1st semester). In preparation for the virtual or the real life MUN they will work on a position paper for which they will do the research necessary and write it according to the formatting specifications. After handing in their position paper, they will read and work with the other delegation’s position papers for the respective conference to be informed about other positions. For evaluation, they will regularly provide feedback for their peers and teachers and at the end of each course participate in evaluations and review sessions (2nd semester).

Delegation at MacMUN 2024, cooperation with DGVN and perspectives on EfMUN and NMUN NY

Negotiations, collaboration, and complex discussions were part of this year’s online UN simulation MacMUN 2024, hosted by the UN Club at MacEwan University Edmonton (Canada). More than 50 delegates from Ukraine, Germany, Japan, Croatia and Canada worked together virtually last weekend. They passed three resolutions CCPJ/RES/1/1, CCPJ/RES/1/2, and CCPJ/RES/1/3 on the topic of “Criminal Justice Responses to Cybercrime in All its Forms”. Working among them in various breakout rooms and plenum sessions were four students from the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences.

MacEwan University (Canada) is a collaboration partner of the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences in the DAAD project “Transnational Governance and Human Rights”. The MacMUN conference took first place during the pandemic and has become a regular event that enables collaboration across borders and continents. “At MacMUN, individuals become global citizens”, stressed Nathan Poe, the current President of the UN Club at the beginning of the two-day event.

Melike Schalomon, the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at MacEwan university, opened MacMUN 2024 as Keynote Speaker. Coming from Germany originally, she greeted the German students with a warm “Grüess Gott miteinander” before encouraging the delegates “to take full advantage not only to debate and discuss but also to learn from one another”. Schalomon stressed that she is always “amazed at the critical evaluation of issues that comes out of this conference”.

“Model United Nations” (MUN) are a worldwide practice of simulations in which participants take on the role of an international delegate in a simulated committee of the United Nations (UN). Since 2019, Fulda delegations have been participating in real life and virtual MUNs. Currently, preparation for and organisation of MUNs are coordinated in the Fulda Centre of Transnational Governance by Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner and Muriel C. Pluschke and MUN is by now part of the teaching curriculum of the MA programmes ICEUS and MAHRS. In November 2024, a collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen Landesverband Hessen e.V. (DGVN) started. The beginning of the cooperation was marked with a lecture by Matthias Eiles, head of the DGVN Hessen, and Ekkehard Griep, head of DGVN Germany, on “The United Nation's Pact for the Future – Results and Implications” within the Lecture Series 2024/2025.

The next conferences to be attended by Fulda delegations are EfMUN 2025 in January and NMUN New York 2025 in April. MUN being part of the curricula of ICEUS and MAHRS, the next two-semester cycle will start in the summer term 2025, organised by Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner and Prof. Dr. Philip Liste. The first part of the seminar in the summer term contains an introduction into international law and transnational politics as well as into the skills necessary for participating in a MUN. In preparation for the virtual or the real life MUN in the second part of the seminar in the winter term 2025/2026 students will work on a position paper and during the MUN take on the role of a delegate of a country and negotiate on its behalf, work on working papers with the other delegates and vote for resolutions.

Five students and Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner are participating in National Model United Nations

More than a year of preparation and organization lie behind a five Fulda students and Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner who are now in the final stage of getting ready for National Model United Nations (NMUN). From 24 to 28 March 2024 they will be discussing, negotiating, and networking in New York together with thousands of students from all around the world. NMUN New York is the “world's largest, most prestigious, most diverse, and oldest ongoing university-level Model UN” (NMUN 2024). And for the first time, a delegation from Fulda University of Applied Sciences is part of the huge and well-known conference. “ It is a major success for us to have been accepted at NMUN with a delegation”, says Prof. Claudia Wiesner. “We are all happy and excited to be attending the NMUN prime event!”

NMUN is formally associated with the United Nations (UN) Department of Global Communications. This means that the conference in New York culminates at the UN Headquarters and provides a unique opportunity for all attendees. They will get to know students from various countries, be able to practice English, hold speeches in front of a big committee, stand in for their countries position and train their soft skills for their future work life.

The students will be representing Sao Tome and Principe in four committees individually or with a partner. In the General Assembly First Committee (GA1) they will discuss the two topics “Relationship between Disarmament and Development” and “The Role of Science and Technology in International Security and Disarmament”. In the General Assembly Second Committee (GA2) they will negotiate about “Promotion of Sustainable Tourism” and “Eradicating Rural Poverty to Implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. In General Assembly Third Committee (GA3) they will talk about “Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children in Conflict” and “Preventing Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”. And in the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) they will put their focus on “Environmental Sustainability in the Textile and Fashion Industries” and “Implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework”.

To be well prepared, Prof. Dr. Wiesner and Prof. Dr. Philip Liste jointly taught the basics of international politics, law, and conference rules in a MUN seminar. Furthermore, some students already participated in Fulda MUN 2023 as well as in EfMUN 2023 and EfMUN 2024 to gather first experiences. The coordination and organization of MUN at the faculty were done by Muriel C. Pluschke. The excursion is funded by the DAAD HAW International project at the faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences of Fulda University of Applied Sciences, “Transnational Governance and Human Rights”.

More information on NMUN New York can be found here

Source: NMUN. 2024. Welcome to NMUN!

Four SK-students were part of a Model United Nations (MUN) conference in Erfurt

Collaboration and negotiations, speeches, and discussions as well as social events such as a city-rally were part of a three-day excursion to EfMUN from 19th to 21st of January. Four ICEUS- and MAHRS-students spent an exciting weekend in the town hall of the Thuringian city and got to know other students from eight German universities. The excursion was organized and accompanied by the faculty advisor Muriel C. Pluschke who summed the excursion up: “It was a great conference where the students could experience international negotiations and collaboration first hand and practice various soft skills important for their future work.”

As delegates each of the students represented an assigned member state in one United Nations’ committee. One student represented Egypt in the General Assembly where he discussed the two topics “Rights of Indigenous People” and “Empowering Conflict-Affected Children and Youth”. Two students represented the United Kingdom and Belgium in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and spoke about “Strengthening Partnerships for Sustainable Development in Least Developed Countries” and “Promoting Access to Affordable, Reliable, Sustainable, and Modern Energy for All”. Lastly, one student represented Mozambique in the Security Council and discussed the two topics “Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflicts” and “Women, Peace, and Security”. She was awarded the “Best Delegate-Award”, an award that is decided on among the delegates for the best performance during the conference.

In each committee, the more than 100 delegates being part of the conference in total engaged in heated discussions, hold speeches in front of their committees and negotiated with the other country representatives. In the end, they were able to vote on five draft-resolutions of which four were accepted as resolutions.

To prepare for the conference, the students took part in preparatory seminars taught by Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner and Prof. Dr. Philip Liste with the support of Muriel C. Pluschke. They are part of the “Bridge Programne” Hesse Ukraine and the project PATRAPO-LVIV led by Prof. Wiesner that includes Ukrainian students into hybrid teaching.

The next big step for MUN in Fulda is the participation in NMUN New York in March 2024 with a delegation of MAHRS- and ICEUS-students accompanied by Prof. Dr. Wiesner and organized by Muriel C. Pluschke.

More information about MUN at the faculty can be found here

For the second time the UN simulation "Model United Nations" (MUN) took place at the department of Social and Cultural Sciences from July 17 to 20. This year 39 students and five teachers from the partner universities Madrid, Edmonton, Lwiw and Zagreb participated, among them two students as a film team. On the part of the department of Social and Cultural Sciences, seven students from the Master ICEUS and seven students from the Master MAHRS participated. MUN has been held at the department since 2019. This year, under the leadership of Prof. Claudia Wiesner, a delegation from Fulda already participated in the MUN conference in Erfurt in January. Since winter 2022/2023, the preparatory seminars for MUN are integrated into the curriculum in MAHRS and ICEUS.

The Fulda MUN 2023 was conducted under the direction of Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner and Prof. Dr. Philip Liste as well as Muriel C. Pluschke and Clara Umstätter and with the support of a team consisting of Zhylien Kaja, Vivian Seidel, Vanessa Wintermantel and Pauline Woods (all from the department of Social and Cultural Sciences). It took place within the framework of the projects PATRAPO (Practicing Transnational Politics), Transnational Governance and Human Rights (HAW International), Brückenprogramm Hessen-Ukraine, supported by the Point Alpha Research Institute (PARI). Project partners are the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada. In addition, a student delegation from Catholic University Lwiw, Ukraine, led by Prof. Dr. Galyna Protsyk, took part (with the longest journey of over 26 hours by bus).

Three students from Canada as well as the visiting professor at the faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Chaldeans Mensah, led the participants as chairmen (Dais) through the conference and its proceedings. Beforehand, the students had prepared intensively for the conference for two semesters within the framework of a hybrid, seminar. Students from Fulda, Lwiw, Madrid and Zagreb participated in the online seminar sessions, which were led by teachers from Fulda, Madrid and Zagreb. The Fulda MUN 2023 was the highlight of the seminar for everyone and provided an opportunity to finally simulate a UN conference together in presence. The students were now able to meet in person and exchange ideas and make international contacts. "The conference is a great experience. We have guests from four different countries, which simulate 19 UN states. Everyone is working intensively and learning a lot, but the atmosphere and the exchange are great, both among students and teachers," said Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner pleased.

The Fulda MUN 2023 focused on two topics that are of great importance in today's world - "Countering disinformation for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms" and "Natural Disasters in conflict regions". In the MUN simulations, students slip into the roles of various UN states, which they meticulously prepare in order to represent them credibly. This time, for example, there were Russian, Chinese and South African, but also Finnish, German and French "delegates".

After the opening ceremony with first speeches of the teachers, the delegates decided by majority vote to deal with the topic of natural disasters first. Together they worked out three resolutions on this topic, which were successfully passed despite some abstentions as well as a few dissenting votes. The second topic, disinformation, was on the agenda from Wednesday on. Here, two resolution were adopted by the delegates. "In simulating the UN General Assembly, students learn how the political interest of states finds expression in highly formalized procedures," Prof. Dr. Philip Liste drew a final conclusion.

The Fulda MUN 2023 was framed by a sightseeing tour through the city including a joint dinner, a reception at Frauenberg Monastery, where among others the Dean of the faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Matthias Klemm, as well as Prof. Dr. Claudia Kreipl, Vice President for Research and Transfer at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, held short speeches, and a concluding dinner with a three-course menu at the Ritter Restaurant. A special highlight was the visit of the Hessische Rundfunk, which brought about a three-minute contribution in the Hessenschau. The videos can be found here  and here  as well as a Podcast here.

A new collaboration for National Model United Nations simulations!

Students and staff from the department of Social and Cultural Sciences of Fulda University of Applied Sciences (UAS) and the MacEwan University Edmonton (Canada) with its United Nations Club officially joined forces to collaborate on furthering MUN activities. Together they prepare for, practice and participate in (National) Models United Nations (NMUN) .

Delegates from both universities met during NMUN Erfurt in November 2019. The students Clara Umstätter and Hannah Wahler participated for Fulda University of Applied Arts in the NMUN.

“No other experience comes close to that of NMUN. Hannah and I wanted to give students the opportunity to get to know the work of the UN, transnational politics and international relations at first hand. But NMUN is also about meeting new people and connecting with students from all over the world. Fortunately, at our first conference in Erfurt I met Layal from McEwan University and we became friends. Thus we had the idea to connect our universities and to start a collaboration”, says Clara Umstätter. Both students stayed via email and social media in touch and exchanged research and teaching material as well as tips and other information regularly throughout the following semester’s NMUN course.

This cooperation was now institutionalised and will be further extended. The responsible professors both in Edmonton and Fulda, Prof. Dr. Chaldeans Mensah and Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner, connect and support the collaboration via integrating NMUN preparation into their teaching. “As the world faces a global pandemic, it is encouraging to see students from Germany and Canada engage virtually to exchange academic ideas to develop the skills of global citizenship, and acquire the diplomatic skills to participate effectively at NMUN conferences. Through peer-to-peer training, supported by faculty from both institutions, students gain transferable skills such as public speaking, research, leadership, the art of negotiations and conflict resolution”, says Professor Chaldeans Mensah, the faculty advisor of the UN Club from MacEwan University. Regular meetings (online as well as in person), „collaborative international online classes“, a mentoring program for delegates to connect students enable a cultural and scientific exchange, as well as participation in (N)MUN conferences with a joined delegation. Moreover self-organized online NMUN conferences are planned.

Each year, 10-15 students from the department of Social and Cultural Sciences of Fulda UAS will have the opportunity to participate in the NMUN-seminars and in a (N)MUNs such as the in the Czech Republic in November 2021 or in Japan in November 2022. “Doing NMUN means to acquire essential skills for students of Politics: they practice transnational politics live and from A-Z, which means they concretely apply their seminar knowledge and learn how politics actually work”, highlights Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner from Fulda UAS.

In addition, the UN-Club Fulda was established. It will be closely linked to the collaboration. The club offers regular meetings in addition to the seminars and is furthermore meant to enable an active exchange between the alumni and current participants in the seminars. It is led by students of the department of Social and Cultural Sciences who will, based on a written constitution, take on different tasks/roles such as Secretary-General, Director-General, Vice President of Operations or Vice President of Finance. They receive support from Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner. (LINK: UN Club)

MUN 2022 - Model United Nations completed in hybrid format

To slip into the role of a delegate of the United Nations and to experience how decisions are made on the UN level, this opportunity was offered to students from four different countries from July 4 to 6 in Fulda.  Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner and Prof. Dr. Philip Liste as well as Muriel C. Pluschke and Clara Umstätter (supported by Maria Keller, Zhylien Kaja and Meike Schmidt-Gleim), the SK Department hosted an international Model United Nations (MUN), which was carried out within the framework of the PATRAPO (Practicing Transnational Politics) and Transnational Governance and Human Rights (HAW International) projects. Project partners are Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, Zagreb University, Croatia, and MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada. In addition, a student delegation from Catholic University Lviv, Ukraine, led by Prof. Dr. Halyna Protsyk, arrived. The project partners were represented by a delegation of three students from Canada and Prof. Dr. Chaldeans Mensah. The Canadian students led the participants as chairmen (Dais) through the conference and its proceedings. In addition to the Canadians, a student delegation from Zagreb, Croatia, was present to participate in the conference. Additionally, students from Madrid, Spain, as well as some other students from Fulda were connected online to participate in the hybrid conference. After two semesters of intensive preparation in a virtual, cross-national seminar, it was a real highlight for all participants to finally come together in person and simulate a UN conference together, as well as to exchange ideas and make international contacts.

The first Model United Nations in Fulda was opened with a speech by Professor Halyna Protsyk from Ukraine. She addressed the war in Ukraine, which was also the topic of the following conference. After her speech, some of the Ukrainian students shared their personal impressions from the war zone, which touched and affected everyone present.

Afterwards, the actual conference began, during which the approximately 40 participants took on the role of delegations of a UN member state for three days. The individual delegates held speeches, looked for cooperation partners, negotiated intensively, wrote working papers together and finally voted on the results of the draft resolutions in plenary. Finally, three resolutions on "Reducing the impact on food security from the Ukraine conflict" were adopted.

On the occasion of the event, a festive reception was held at Café Flora of the Frauenberg Monastery in Fulda on July 5. The President of the University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Prof. Dr. Kharim Khakzar, welcomed the guests present, consisting of current and former MUN participants, employees of the University and of the Faculty SK. Further greetings were given by Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner and Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Reinhard, Dean of the Faculty. In addition, a greeting from Michael Brand (CDU), member of the German Bundestag, who could not be present in person, was read out.

The conference was closed after the final vote of all delegates on the Draft Resolutions on July, 06 with a speech by Prof. Dr. Chaldeans Mensah. Finally, some students were honored with awards for especially good performances such as excellent speeches or position papers.  In the evening, the delegations had dinner and exchanged ideas at the Brauhaus Wiesenmühle before leaving Fulda the next day after three eventful days.

The Fulda Team: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner, Prof. Dr. Philip Liste, Muriel Pluschke, Clara Umstätter, Maria Keller, Meike Schmidt-Gleim, Zhylien Kaja

AIMUN 2021 - Model United Nations completed online

Students from eight universities have jointly drawn up six resolutions

The United Nations come into your own living room! Such was the name of the game for 23 students of the "Intercultural Communication and European Studies" (ICEUS) Master program of the Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences. In the Alberta Intercollegiate Model United Nations (AIMUN) in march 2021, a UN simulation game, the students played the roles of diplomats from different states of the UN. To do this, they had beforehand extensively researched their countries’ political positions and prepared intensively. The Fulda students represented the eleven countries Russia, Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, Finland, Colombia, India, Australia, Sweden and Costa Rica.

the international conference – which took place online due to the pandemic – was organised by the UN Club of MacEwan University Edmonton (Canada). On two afternoons and well into the evening and the night (German time), the ICEUS Seniors met students from the University of Guelph-Humber Ontario (Canada), the Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, the National University Kyiv Mohyla Academy and the Ukraine Catholic University (all three Ukraine), ITESO - Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara and the Universidad Iberoamericana, Leon (both Mexico). Together they worked out and passed six resolutions on the subject of "Climate Change: Mitigating its economic, environmental and social effects" and were able to gain valuable experience in negotiating and international diplomacy.

The conference began Saturday late afternoon German time (due to the different time zones, in Canada it was 9:00 am) with an opening ceremony. Dr. Melike Schalomon, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at MacEwan University, urged all participants to adopt a more global perspective, to familiarize themselves with international issues and to always reflect critically. She also emphasized the importance of cooperation and mutual understanding as well as of joint action. Further greetings came from Sean Waddingham, President of the Students ’Association at MacEwan University, and from Dr. Chaldeans Mensah, Faculty Advisor of the UN Club of MacEwan University. This was followed by a detailed presentation on the conference topic by activists Maryam and Nivaal Rehman, who founded “The World with MNR”.

Roll Call, talk and negotiate

After the first call of the delegates, the Ceremonial Roll Call, each of the delegations was given the opportunity to present his or her own position. In a 90-second opening speech, the students explained which measures the countries they represent have already implemented and which further goals and ideas they developed to limit climate change. Discussions, negotiations and the drafting of working papers and resolutions in virtual breakout rooms followed. The students were able to move back and forth between the virtual rooms and work together with other delegates. Numerous short speeches were given during the formal sessions of the General Assembly. These offered further opportunities to present the position of the state and for cooperation.

On Sunday evening, the conference participants met again after a long night. There, too, was diligent negotiation and intensive work on the resolution drafts. Finally, it was voted on six draft resolutions, all of which were adopted. The conference ended with a keynote speech from Heather McPherson, a member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona. She highlighted MUN as an “excellent tool” and emphasized how the conference can help to strengthen various soft skills such as arguing and debating. In addition, several awards were granted at the official closing ceremony. The ICEUS students Haya Khraes and Angeli Geißelhardt, who represented Switzerland, were honoured for the best position paper. Costa Rica, represented by ICEUS students Lucas Ricardo Perry Lalanne and Sonja-Monique Schackla, was awarded for the best opening speech. In addition, Australia, represented by ICEUS students Nathalie Kohlhert and Lena Fockers, and Columbia, represented by ICEUS Seniors Dayana Camila Tudor Gomez, Fadwa Mamouni and Particia Tavier Fairburn, were recognized as outstanding delegations. "AIMUN was a once in a lifetime experience during my journey as a student. I think it is the best opportunity to practice many skills that we will need in the near future such as: diplomatic behaviour, being much more open and collaborative, working together with different people for a common goal. I would definitely recommend it to other students.", says Zhylien Kaja, one of the ICEUS students. 

The preparations for the conference took place during the course "Alberta Intercollegiate Model United Nations (AIMUN)" in the winter semester. The course was offered as an alternative to the pandemic-related cancellation of the usual excursion to Brussels and was given by Prof. Claudia Wiesner with the assistance of Clara Umstätter and Muriel C. Pluschke. “Normally we would have gone to Brussels this semester to get to know transnational politics and the actions of supranational organizations on site. Instead, we have now done it virtually. The students learned a tremendous amount and - as the awards show - they were also very successful ", says Prof. Wiesner happily.

Cooperation since 2019

The cooperation between the Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences and MacEwan University exists since a delegation from Fulda took part in NMUN Erfurt in November 2019. In addition to joint online seminars in the summer semester 2020, two smaller joint online conferences have already been held (in November 2020 and January 2021). The university is also one of the partners in the recently launched large-scale DAAD project “Transnational Governance and Human Rights”. The aim of the project is to expand international cooperation between the faculty and Fulda University of Applied Sciences and to anchor it sustainably in the curriculum by the end of 2024. This is supported by almost one million euros in funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through their HAW.International project line. With regard to the UN Club of MacEwan University, joint online seminars and joint participation in (N)MUNs, possibly with mixed delegations, are planned for the future.

Icon by shashank singh from the Noun Project