Higher Education for Sustainable Development at Leuphana University Lüneburg

The Leuphana University Lüneburg is one of Germany’s leading universities in terms of advancing and institutionalizing "sustainability", both in its own academic programs and in the area of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability research.
The university is one of the role models for sustainable change in Germany. In 2023, it has been awarded German Sustainability Award (Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis, DNP) for its achievements as a pioneer of sustainability in educational institutions. The consistent implementation of higher education for sustainable development (ESD) is one of the Leuphana’s distinguishing features. Across all levels of education and in all types of schools (college, graduate school, professional school), the university has fostered emergence of specialized experts in sustainability science and to the development of sustainability-relevant knowledge and competencies as its integral part.

The Sustainability Education and Transdisciplinary Research Institute (SETRI) is home to the UNESCO Chair at Leuphana and represents the university in the COPERNICUS Alliance. The institute brings together researchers from diverse parts of the globe for solution-oriented, transformative, emergent and inclusive research and praxis. In Leuphana’s own professional school, which offers practice-oriented training programs in various different forms to meet the demands of heterogeneous target groups, the university has managed to integrate the topic of sustainability in the context of lifelong learning. Furthermore, it draws on vast expertise when it comes to scaling such courses because Leuphana has years of logistical and didactic experience in developing academic programs. These include sessions for smaller learning groups and also larger sessions with up to 1,600 students that are held for all of the university’s freshers in, among others, the sustainability-oriented module called "Transformation" which was previously called "Responsibility and Sustainability".

With regard to Education for Sustainable Development, the university has been working closely with UNESCO and several international and national partners in Germany for many years, among other things, through the UNESCO Chair in "Higher Education for Sustainable Development" (since 2005), and as a key partner in the ESDfor2030 framework. It leads the UNESCO UNITWIN network on ESD and Social Transformation with university partners.

 

Contacts

► Daniel Fischer, Professor of ESD and Sustainability Communication | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
► Deepika Joon, Coordinator, SETRI | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
► Claire Grauer, Research Coordinator, SETRI | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

► Website of Leuphana University Lüneburg