One of the Sustainability in Teaching and Studies Team’s (Team 2) tasks at the Center for a Sustainable University (KNU) is to guide and advise the Universitätskolleg.
The Universitätskolleg received funding as part of the Quality Pact for Teaching. In 2012, it was newly established under the motto “bridges to the university—pathways to academia.” In January 2017 Universitätskolleg 2.0 relaunched itself for the second phase of funding under the motto “diversity as an opportunity.” It advances education through scholarship in a changing education and university landscape. All project areas focus on improving studies and teaching, offering various courses and services throughout the student life cycle. The project areas develop tools for self-assessment, courses and workshops to help students get off to a successful start, support measures for student activities, extracurricular courses, an inter-faculty writing center, and various other kinds of support for teaching staff in the teaching lab.
The KNU and the Universitätskolleg primarily collaborate in the area of sustainable teaching: which qualities (in addition to content) should courses and activities have? (See also the PDF Nachhaltigkeit in Studium und Lehre - Positionspapier clarifying our views on sustainability in studies and teaching). Several staff members from the Universitätskolleg, for example, work with the KNU Sustainability in Studies and Teaching Team to develop, among other things, courses on interdisciplinarity headed by Miriam Brassler and on community-based research in the teaching labs headed by Prof. Kai-Uwe Schnapp (jointly with Prof. Dr. Anita Engels). The Universitätskolleg is currently working on a new issue of its magazine Synergie dedicated to digitalization and sustainability.
Furthermore, the head of the Universitätskolleg’s Quality Pact for Teaching, Prof. Dr. Axel Horstmann, has long served as a consultant to the KNU.
See the Universitätkolleg’s homepage for more information.
Equal Opportunity Unit
Universität Hamburg sees itself as a modern, international university with equal opportunity goals as an established part of its political mission. The Equal Opportunity Unit at Universität Hamburg rests on 3 pillars: gender, diversity, and the compatibility of family and work life.
The KNU works closely with the Equal Opportunity Unit on various projects and activities. Here are few examples of projects at the University that relate to both sustainability and equal opportunity:
- research alliance project: “Multilingualism as a Resource of the Sustainable University”
- sustainability report (in German): chapter “Soziales” (with information on issues such as equal treatment, diversity and equal opportunity, family-friendly university, and work-life balance)
- cooperation with the Equal Opportunity Unit for various activities (e.g., the active lunch break organized by the Equal Opportunity Unit or the Action Days for Sustainability organized by the KNU).
- Diversity Audit: strategic collaboration on diversity and sustainability; KNU participates in the steering committee
- Pro Exzellenzia meets Universität Hamburg—Sustainable Academic Careers lecture series