Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger, Rector Vienna University of Economics and Business
70 students from eight universities and universities of applied science, five professors from the four biggest universities in Vienna, three start-up experts, nine service-learning partners such as SPAR a multinational retail chain, the electricity company Verbund or the Austria Glas Recycling GmbH and the RCE Vienna came together at the Kick Off event of the Sustainability Challenge on March 7, 2016. Opening remarks by Evi Frei from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW) and Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger, rector of the Vienna University of Economics and Business showed the importance of the course as part of the third mission of universities.
Students, professors and partners from the ministry, companies, the city of Vienna and NGOs meet at the Pallais Harrach for the Kick Off
The Sustainability Challenge is an interuniversity course on sustainable development, organized on a yearly basis by the Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) Vienna. During two semesters students with a wide variety of backgrounds participate in this course jointly taught by five professors, each from a different institute. Students either choose a service learning project, where they work together with companies, NGOs or ministries to find solutions for concrete challenges or a new start-up option, where students get the chance to develop their very own entrepreneurial answers to the challenges in the field of sustainability.
Students group discusses with service learning partner Harald Hauke from the Austria Glas Recycling GmbH
This year’s program , organized with the support of the UNESCO-Commission and the BMWFW, focuses on “Smart City – Global Challenges, local answers” and aims at promoting a more just and social world. This is done by encouraging transdisciplinarity and by facilitating the translation of sustainability from theory into practice. Through interactive teaching practices students get encouraged to reflect upon their actions and to take different points of view.
A more sustainable education requires the development of important competencies such as the ability to analyze problems from different perspectives, the capacity to work cooperatively across disciplinary borders and strategic competence to realize ideas in practice. By allowing the development of such competencies, the Sustainability Challenge plays an important role in the educational landscape of Vienna. It brings together the four biggest universities of Vienna as organizing units, several praxis partners and 70 students to jointly address a crucial task: achieving a more sustainable future.
