The issue Sustainability is getting more relevant in many professional contexts, it diffuses into different fields and is integrated increasingly into several careers. To handle complex issues such as Sustainability and implement sustainable concepts in societal processes an integrated multiple perspective and basic knowledge from several disciplines is needed. This is the overall idea of the study programme Sustainability at the University of Oldenburg. The study programme is eligible for Bachelor students of the entire university and is integrated in the overall university programme for cross-cutting themes. It gives a basic understanding about the idea of sustainability to the interdisciplinary students followed by the possibility to get - corresponding to the preferred professional field - specific methodological competences of methods and tools being used in several professional fields. The program aims to give also general overview of careers in the field of Sustainability.
Background The issue Sustainability is getting more relevant in many professional contexts, it diffuses into different fields and is integrated increasingly into several careers. In terms of "employability” as the central idea of the Bologna process this study programme aims to interfere overall business and professional competences and the ability to solve complex challenges in the field of Sustainability. To handle complex issues such as Sustainability and implement sustainable concepts in societal processes an integrated multiple perspective and basic knowledge from several disciplines is needed.
This is the overall idea of the study programme Sustainability at the University of Oldenburg. The study programme is eligible for Bachelor students of the entire university and is integrated in the overall university programme for cross-cutting themes. It gives a basic understanding about the idea of sustainability to the interdisciplinary students followed by the possibility to get - corresponding to the preferred professional field - specific methodological competences of methods and tools being used in several professional fields. The program aims to give also general overview of careers in the field of Sustainability.
The University of Oldenburg has a long tradition in environmental education. The bachelor programme Sustainability in the cross-cutting university programme is a new and reasonable supplement to the range of master degree programmes combined in the so called “MasterCluster Sustainability and Management”.
The study programme consists of two modules containing five lectures. Module I gives a general introduction to the concept of Sustainability. The second module focuses on special application and professional fields of Sustainability, giving an interdisciplinary perspective to the students and also the possibilities to obtain knowledge on a special topic.
The module I consists of two lectures. One on “Concepts and theories of sustainable development” and a second one on “Case studies of successful and failed innovation strategies – conditions, potentials and risks”. These lectures deal with global and EU policies and how they impact on the society, global markets and international agreements. It gives a broad overview to the leitmotif of sustainable development, the basic idea, history, environmental strategies, laws, norms and audits. The second lecture focuses on case studies analyzing opinion formation and agenda setting processes answering the following questions: How do issues find their way on political agendas, how do participation procedures function and why do certain social innovations fail while others became success stories in the field of sustainability. The course aims to identify criteria for successful policy strategies in a globalised world: what kind of basic conditions do sustainable innovations need?
Module II aims to give students a wide overview of application fields of Sustainability and the competence to solve complex problems throughout a multi-perspective course of studies. This module contains currently three lectures in three fields of specialisation. One lecture gives an Introduction to Corporate Sustainability Management. The students gain knowledge about selected concepts, methods and tools of Corporate Sustainability Management like environmental and social accounting (ISO 14031, EMAS, SA 8000) environmental reporting and Auditing. Furthermore students obtain knowledge about the practical approaches by discussing issues with experts from consulting teams.
The second lecture is about Renewable energy. This lecture introduces to basic technologies of renewable energy supply. This includes lessons of physical principles and applications of different technologies. The students will also have the ability to follow the societal discussion about the socioeconomic conditions and challenges which will be evolved by changing energy supply systems.
The third lecture aims to give a wide understanding of basic concepts being used in the field of climate mitigation or adaptation processes. With regard to the IPCC-Report principles of Environment Modelling are discussed to understand present scenarios of climate change. There are also lessons about the principles of change processes in the natural landscapes. Basics of Spatial planning methods are discussed to give an understanding of what kind of problems being evolved and have to be solved when environmental change is being happened and new allocation conflicts evolving. New political and societal participation processes have to be developed to face the challenges of Sustainability. Every winter term students can select the learning course “European Virtual Seminar on Sustainable Development (EVS)” offered by the Open University of the Netherlands. Students who have attended the course worked on case studies about a Rumanian ecological park or integrated coastal zone management.
Students who want to work on Sustainability issues in enterprises or international organisations need knowledge from different disciplines to handle complexity and be aware of interlinkages of modern society challenges. The exchange with other disciplines, switching to other perspectives and translating findings to non experts are important competences for young graduates.
Sustainability is characterized as a complex scope of activities treated by several societal actors in different areas in different ways. Two basic competences for future experts can be recognized:
• knowledge about other disciplinary perspectives and approaches • competence to solve complex problems in cooperation with several societal actors
The University of Oldenburg has a long tradition in environmental education. The bachelor programme Sustainability in the cross-cutting university programme is a new and reasonable supplement to the range of master degree programmes combined in the so called “MasterCluster Sustainability and Management”.
The study programme consists of two modules containing five lectures. Module I gives a general introduction to the concept of Sustainability. The second module focuses on special application and professional fields of Sustainability, giving an interdisciplinary perspective to the students and also the possibilities to obtain knowledge on a special topic.
Results To give the competence to exchange with other disciplines, switching to other perspectives is one the main objectives of the Programme. The idea was to develop lectures in which students from different disciplines forced to discuss topics on renewable energies, spatial planning, governance, environmental policy and hydrological sciences within the framework of climate change. As a result interaction within interdisciplinary students groups is a difficult task. It takes much more time to translate findings to non experts, often – if possible - its been avoided. Lecturers have to pay more attention on innovative learning settings which have the potential to achieve interdisciplinary interaction.
At the end it was a rich experience for everybody who was engaged in this project. Setting up an interfaculty teaching project with lecturers from physics, geoecology, economics and social sciences against the rigidity of administrative rules has been really an informative adventure. Realizing interdisciplinary courses would be much easier if there were more flexible slots within different degree programmes.
Innovative aspects The study programme is eligible for Bachelor students of the entire university with the consequence that students from every discipline come together and meet lecturers from various departments. The lectures often are interdisciplinary collaborations of different departments, faculties or even universities. Most of them contain a wide range of lessons across different aspects and sciences.
The programme offers exchange possibilities among European students by offering innovative e-learning lectures and also among interdisciplinary and interfaculty lecturers. For both it is a huge challenge and chance to learn from each other through taking other (disciplinary) perspectives.
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