Sustainable development – in teaching

Researchers at the University of Konstanz contribute to reaching the United Nations’ (UN) 17 sustainability goals not only in their research but also in their research-oriented teaching and transfer activities. This means that students benefit from the most state-of-the-art research on current societal challenges. The University of Konstanz expands its course range with a focus on sustainability, e.g. by offering a special lecture series as well as courses teaching transferable skills.

Since the winter semester 2021/2022, courses from all departments with a connection to sustainability will be listed together in the course catalogue. The category "Sustainability" is integrated below the category "Interdisciplinary Programmes". This means that students now have the opportunity to find out about all courses on sustainability at a glance.

Selection of sustainability events from the current and past semesters:

Education for everyone, reducing inequality

  • Education for sustainable development, the “Schule Aktuell” event series (in German) hosted by the Binational School of Education (BiSE)
  • Environmental Humanities, a lecture series hosted by the Department of Literature, Art and Media Studies – American Studies
  • Civic Strength: Crisis and Chance, lecture series hosted by the project “Gemeinsinn. Was ihn bedroht und was wir für ihn tun können” (Community. What endangers it and what we can do for it)
  • Inequality and Education: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, seminar hosted by the Department of Economics and the Department of Politics and Public Administration – Public Economics and Comparative Political Economy
  • The Politics of Inequality, seminar offered since the summer semester of 2021 by the Department of Politics and Public Administration – Comparative Political Economy
  • The Political Economy of Social Inequality, seminar offered by the Department of Politics and Public Administration – Comparative Political Economy
  • #climatechallenge goes Lehramt, seminar, education for sustainable development

Good nutrition and healthy living for everyone

  • Promoting more sustainable food consumption: Developing an integrated food policy and creating fair food environments, a public lecture series focussing on the report of the same name and jointly hosted by the University of Kiel, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the Thünen Institute, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Göttingen, the University of Hohenheim and the University of Konstanz
  • Human nutrition and ecological consequences, E-learning offer of the Virtual Academy Sustainability

Climate

  • Climate and class, lecture series, Centre for Transferable Skills (SQ)r and Green Office
  • Ways out of the climate labyrinth - How sustainable thinking and action in business, politics and society can avoid climate catastrophe, seminar 

Sustainable and modern energy for everyone

  • Semiconductor technology and physics of solar cells, hosted by the Department of Physics, Photovoltaics, Department of Physics
  • Technology, energy, and sustainability, Online seminar of the Virtual Academy Sustainability
  • Climate change and sustainability, seminar, Department of Physics, Experimental physics, climate change, CO and other greenhouse gases - Tipping points in the climate structure - Renewable energies: possibilities and limitations - Energy saving possibilities

Sustainable consumption and means of production

  • Industrial Chemistry and Renewable Resources, hosted by the Department of Chemistry – Chemical Materials Science
  • Textile industry at the crossroads - finding fair and transparent alternatives, seminar

Sustainability certificate Qualifikation N

The sustainability certificate creates a framework that allows students of all subjects to engage in a process of interdisciplinary exchange. On the basis of current research, students discuss sustainability topics and develop social and individual problem-solving approaches. At the end of the curriculum, students are awarded a certificate as a valuable addition to their CV.