Author: Petra Biberhofer

Starting with the results of the needs analysis (see CASE Report 1), we initiated a multi-stakeholder process with five workshops in three European countries to develop modules for a joint European master program on Sustainability-driven Entrepreneurship. This process was supported by literature reviews concerning relevant content fields and adequate teaching and learning approaches.

 

 

 

The master program will be explicitly competence-, not only knowledge-oriented. Therefore, we were looking for teaching and learning methods that foster sustainability and entrepreneurial competencies like anticipatory thinking, creativity, opportunity-detection, strategic action competence and interpersonal, communication skills. As entrepreneurs, students will address complex real-world sustainability problems within a business setting.

The results are now published in a report that outlines the master program concerning content, methods and a possible course structure.

CASE Report on Content and Methods for the Joint Master Program on Sustainability-driven Entrepreneurship

This year, the German Days of Action for Sustainability took place from 30^th of May until 5^th of June.

The University of Vechta participated with various activities. The working group for sustainability at the University of Vechta, a student initiative, a project seminar and the canteen had information booths to present ideas and inform about activities for more sustainable practices and developments at the University of Vechta. Prof. Dr. Georg Müller-Christ, Professor of Business and Sustainable Management at the University of Bremen, had been invited to speak on the topic of “Sustainable Development of Higher Education”. A panel discussion entitled “Sustainable paths in the food industry” took place with Dr. Ludger Breloh, Head of Green Products at REWE Group, Dr. Christoph Schank, Professor for Economics and Ethics at the University of Vechta, Mathias Stohr, member of the student initiative sneep e.V., as panelists and Dr. Lydia Kocar as moderator (University of Vechta). The discussion was followed by about 50 interested students, university teachers and further guests like a local school class for young farmers. The panelists agreed that companies in the food industry have to take on their responsibility for more sustainably produced products and that this responsibility cannot be completely passed on to the consumers.

In spring 2016, Prof. Marco Rieckmann (University of Vechta) was invited to two meetings in Lithuania and England as a guest speaker on didactics of higher education in the context of education for sustainable development. For the 26^th of April, the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO had invited experts to the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, for an exchange on how to foster sustainable development in Institutions of Higher Education (HEI). Marco Rieckmann reported on teaching and learning approaches to foster competencies for sustainable development. He presented examples of service-learning courses from his own teaching that were developed in the context of the CASE project. Furthermore he discussed teachers’ needs for capacity building in terms of competence-oriented teaching and learning for sustainable development. The second meeting took place on the 5^th of May at Plymouth University (UK) and was intended as an internal, informal exchange between experts for higher education for sustainable development of this university. Based on the Routledge Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development, Marco Rieckmann presented key issues, trends and needs for future research on Higher Education for Sustainable Development. In a second part he talked about the implementation of Higher Education for Sustainable Development at the University of Vechta (Germany) and its contribution to the development of students’ sustainability competencies.

The two meetings have contributed to advance competence-oriented teaching and learning in the context of sustainable development in the landscape of European HEI.

Link to Routledge Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development

The three Knowledge Alliance projects “FINCODA”, “CASE” and “Textile and Clothing – TECLO” have met for two days, 12.-13. May, in Utrecht to discuss their synergies and further possibilities for cooperation.

Harri Lappalainen (Fincoda) had initiated a meeting to join efforts and forces of similar Knowledge Alliance projects. All three projects represented in Utrecht deal with competencies needed for responsible, future-oriented businesses and they all work at the interface of science and society with partners from universities as well as business. While the Fincoda project is interested in the assessment of general innovation competencies, the CASE project wants to foster competencies for sustainability-driven entrepreneurship, and the textile and clothing project addresses specific competencies of managers in the textile and clothing industry. During the meeting, synergies were discussed concerning the common topic of fostering competencies. Particular support strategies in between the projects were planned which help to complement current activities. For example, the Fincoda project develops an assessment barometer of innovation competencies that needs to be validated in diverse settings. The CASE project tests and evaluates courses and different cooperation formats between universities and businesses that are designed for a new master program on sustainability-driven entrepreneurship. Co

nsequently, CASE can test the Fincoda barometer in order to see whether the pilot courses enhance students’ innovation competence and Fincoda gets more feedback on its assessment instrument. Likewise, the usage of the massive open online course (MOOC) developed to train textile and clothing managers in the Teclo project can be evaluated with the barometer.

Beyond these joint-testing initiatives, all three projects agreed to disseminate each other’s “products” and aim to develop further joint dissemination activities such as conferences, workshop, publications in order to reach new target groups and encourage the transnational network of Knowledge Alliances.

In short: An inspiring and very fruitful Knowledge Alliance meeting, not at least due to the warm and sunny welcome in Utrecht.

 

The Sustainability Festival is an appointment for reflection and concrete action around the concept of sustainability. From the 5th to the 7th of May, students, researchers and professors of the Free University of Bozen, together with external figures, presented different shades of the idea of sustainability, based on their own field of study.

The event was entirely organized by students and it aimed at involving a broad public through workshops and conferences. The aspiration of the Festival was not only to discuss about sustainability challenges, but also to put it into action.

Susanne Elsen and Claudia Lintner gave a presentation about CASE in a special session dedicated to ongoing research projects from the Faculties of UNIBZ about Sustainability and informed about goals, current developments and next steps of the project.