How can the topic of sustainability be addressed in teaching education and research? The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) now pursued this important question in the USA.
Prof. Dr. Martin Wenke from the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics traveled to an important conference of the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge/Massachusetts.
The "Transatlantic Symposium on Sustainable Development" was organized by Julie Newman, Director of the Office of Sustainability at MIT, and Walter Leal from the HAW University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg.
Prof. Wenke presented the paper "Curriculum Design and the Integration of Sustainability - the Case of the reorganized Master in Business Management", which was prepared together with his department colleague Prof. Dr. Regina Hahn, to the guests who had come mainly from Europe as well as North and South America.
While the panel discussed the pros and cons of a specialized master's degree in sustainability management and corporate social responsibility (CSR), Hahn and Wenke favored the idea of integrating the topic into a generalized management master's degree. Their proposal: to take up topic content from a compulsory module on sustainability management in other modules in the management focus areas such as marketing, HR management, controlling and procurement management. "This 'infusion model' is intended to ensure that management students, in particular, who are not interested in specific sustainability topics nevertheless gain an insight into this important topic and are sensitized to it for their later professional lives," says Prof. Wenke.
In January 2023, the HSNR published its sustainability strategy - as an important component of the university development plan 2022-2026. The aim is to raise awareness of the topic from an economic, ecological and social perspective in teaching education and research and to actively contribute to its improvement.
