News

From 13^th to 17^th of June 2016, experts for sustainability and education visited the University of Vechta and contributed to the running courses with lectures and workshops.

This was possible owing to the International Week that is organized and funded by the International Office of the University of Vechta: All professors have the possibility of inviting guest lecturers from around the world. Prof Dr Marco Rieckmann had invited Dr Lynne Wyness (Plymouth University), Dr Roger Cutting (Plymouth University), the PhD student Laure Yeo (Plymouth University), Dr Patricia Aguirre Mejía (Universidad Técnica del Norte, Ecuador), Katharina Steinlechner (Universidad Técnica del Norte, Ecuador), and Andrea Perneth (Universidad de Antioquia, Columbia).

 

Besides their contribution in courses (e.g. with value-based learning or with inputs on ESD at Plymouth University and sustainability challenges in Ecuador), there was time to discuss the CASE project, the draft for the CASE Master program and issues of capacity building for teaching staff. These discussions were inspiring and we thank our guests for their feedback and theirs ideas!

We met Amanda Österlin La Mont and asked her about her experiences of studying on the international Joint Master Program (JMP) Creative Sustainability at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. The students join the program at various faculties of the Aalto University, based on their background – design, economics, architecture, and engineering. The program lets students with different background work together with various practical societal challenges linked to sustainable development. According to Amanda, the benefits with the program, are that you can specialize in an area that does not offer a full Master program, but also have more opportunity to choose a breadth of courses and study with a width of fellow students to broaden everyone’s perspective.
Although it is challenging to study the JMP Amanda recommends students to accept the challenges and go for a JMP!

Read a longer interview with Amanda Österlin La Mont

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.