Focus on Sustainability at Universities

In his opening address, Thuringia's Minister for the Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation, Bernd Stengele, emphasised the importance of cooperation between politics and science for a sustainable energy policy. Two panels were also dedicated to the topic of "Sustainable Universities", in which environmentally conscious behaviour in the university sector was discussed.

Bettina Hollstein from the Max-Weber-Kolleg, who presented the University of Erfurt's subproject "Education for Sustainable Development", explained in her presentation how evidence-based evaluations and qualitative interviews are used here to find out how transformative education can succeed through project-based teaching-learning arrangements. This approach promotes direct engagement and aims to improve both the teaching-learning arrangements and the overarching educational concept in terms of sustainable development. Bettina Hollstein: "In exchange with other universities, some of which already have extensive experience with practical projects, I have learnt a lot about the further development of a critical-emancipatory educational concept of sustainable development. I would like to make such experiences possible for all students in Thuringia in order to be able to deal with the social challenges of our time."