Sustainability in degree programs and student activities

Sustainability within Anhalt University’s Departments

• Department 1 - LOEL

  Sustainability plays a central role in the degree programs offered by the Department of Agriculture, Ecotrophology and Landscape Development. This is true for courses directly related to conservation and environmental protection, as well as for all those courses dealing with food and feed production, with nutrition and domestic science. In addition, various pilot projects have been and will be implemented and supervised at Campus Bernburg in cooperation with the university’s technical administration. Worthy of note are species protection measures including the installation of an insect hotel as well as nesting aids for birds and bats on buildings. These are planned and carried out with members of the student initiatives Wurzelwerk, the local Ornithologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Strenzfeld or as part of student projects. There are also pilot projects focused on ecological green space management, including, e.g. flowering fields, the setting up a vertical greenery system (Living Wall) and the operation of an agro-photovoltaic plant on land that is simultaneously used for agriculture.

  Department 1

• Department 2 - WI

  Sustainability influences both concepts and course contents of the modules and programs offered at the Department of Economics. Since 2020, students have been offered the choice of a specialist program on "Sustainability management and compliance" as part of our Bachelor's degree program in Business Studies (Betriebswirtschaft). The importance of sustainability is also evident during the design phase of module offerings. Several modules with a sustainability focus were introduced into curricula of the bachelor's degree programs in Business Studies (Betriebswirtschaft), International Business and Business Law (Wirtschaftsrecht). In business courses at master’s level, students may take a module course on "Corporate Social Responsibility". In addition, whenever it lends itself to the topic at hand sustainability is a topic of classroom discussion and coursework in other module courses. Details on this are included in the regularly updated module handbooks and on student projects which are conceptualized and updated each semester.

• Department 3 - AFG

  At the Department of Architecture, Facility Management and Geoinformation, sustainability is anchored in all degree programs and is an integral part of teaching. In urban planning and building design, natural resources are considered in every planning case as part of the site analysis. Following on from this, any project design needs to be carefully balanced between ecological, economic and social requirements. Students are introduced to the planning of zero-energy houses and energy-plus houses as well as to the energy refurbishment of existing buildings in order to be able to reach the goals set out in the internationally agreed climate protection agreements. Indeed, beginning in the design phase, but continuing through project management and into the operational management of properties, lifecycle analyses will become the future standard by which the use of construction and operating materials will be measured. This includes the so-called "gray energy" cost of resources used in production, transport, and storage, as well as the longevity of materials and their movement through extensive closed circular systems. In research and teaching, new approaches are being tried out and integrated, such as the search for sustainable substitutes for dry construction, the integration of energy concepts into the facades, and the application of new new surveying methods using drones.

• Department 4 - DES

  In design teaching at tertiary level, ‘sustainability’ refers to the teaching of skills for an innovative, aesthetically qualitative and sustainable design of products, of strategies and of concepts. In addition to imparting occupation-specific and design-oriented knowledge, a key focus is placed on addressing the challenges of our time from economic, ecological, technological, social, and finally, cultural perspectives. The goal is to anchor in the students themselves, i.e., the future actors in the professional design community, a long-term awareness for the interrelationships and interdependencies of the value chain. The responsibility designers carry in product development extends to the value cycles of manufacturing, to product distribution, as well as to utilization and post-utilization phases. For this reason, the addressing of these issues through study and research projects is of increasing importance at the Department of Design.

  Examples

  1. Design ReUse of material (sustainable projects in teaching)

  Fundamentals, Artistic-Experimental Design Prof. Katrin Günther and Fundamentals of Visualization Prof. Mathias Jüsche, Winter semester 2021/22 to 2022/23

  2. Mural 04 and Mural 01 (a short project at Bachelor-level)

  Project: "KEX Mural"

  3. Design of the sanitary rooms in the Lyceum (a project at Bachelor-level)

  Winter/Summer semester 2021/22, Project: "Can this be new ?"

• Department 5 - INS

  Sustainability plays an important role in the context of research, teaching and IT infrastructure at the Department of Computer Science and Languages. Our activities are simultaneously a reflection of the potential and the expectations emerging from the interplay between IT and sustainability. 

  In this light, teaching staff and researchers cooperate, for example, with the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) or the German Lithium Institute (ITEL). The ensuing projects set up in these cooperations address the development and use of data science and AI applications for processing and analyzing environmental data (such as water samples from drinking water reservoirs), the monitoring of damage to photovoltaic arrays, the investigation of sustainable circular lithium value chains and the development of sustainable smart textiles. 

  The topic of sustainability already features throughout teaching activities at the department. For example, as part of their coursework in the compulsory media-design module, students were set the specific group-task challenge of developing ideas for the design of print media under the rubric of, "Anhalt University of Applied Sciences to become climate-neutral". Given the need for the next generation of IT specialists to first understand sustainability issues before they can apply this understanding to their field, teaching staff at the department are currently developing a concept to anchor sustainability more comprehensively within teaching activities.

  In the area of IT infrastructure, we are also pursuing the goals of sharing existing computing capacities (CPU and GPU servers) for application use, as well as dynamically adjusting resources according to need, and further improving the energy efficiency of IT processes. To this end, virtualization and containerization are used to run the diverse software applications necessary for teaching and research. 

  Plus, the department is sporting some real wildlife: During the ongoing renovation works at the Ratke building in Köthen, which is home to the department, the nesting site of kestrels was protected and preserved. A wildlife camera now makes it possible to observe the falcon family. 

• Department 6 - EMW

  The transformation of our society to a sustainable economy requires new technical solutions across many areas. Examples include renewable power and heat generation, the development of a hydrogen economy, and alternative drive systems for the transformation of transportation. Although the development and implementation of new technical solutions requires knowledge and skills from all areas of engineering, the core subjects of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, information technology, and industrial engineering are especially important. A degree in engineering science will provide young people with the technical skills required to bring about this transition to new energy and sustainability era. Wind energy and photovoltaics will be the cornerstones of a regenerative energy supply for humankind. To this end, the Department of Electrical, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering offers a dedicated English-taught master's degree program in "Photovoltaics Engineering Science", which qualifies students for diverse careers along the entire photovoltaics value chain.

   

• Department 7 - BWP

  The responsible use of available resources defines both the research conducted and the degree programs offered at the Department of Applied Biosciences and Process Engineering. "Life Science Engineering" constitutes the umbrella term for our specialized bachelor-level degree programs, which include the fields of biotechnology, food technology, pharmaceutical engineering, and process engineering. These degree programs strongly reflect the technological transformation processes occurring within our society through their addressing of fundamental issues such as resource transformation from fossil to renewable raw materials, as well as the transition challenges of energy production and heat generation. Building on the bachelor's degree programs, Department 7 also offers master's degree programs. The new degree program Sustainable Energy and Process Technology (Nachhaltige Energie- und Prozesstechnik) makes explicit reference to the current and future challenges in energy supply and material transformation processes.