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Shaping the future: Paderborn Teaching Day focuses on sustainability!
On June 3, 2025, the University of Paderborn will present “Teaching Day” with a focus on sustainable higher education and innovative approaches.
Shaping the future: Paderborn Teaching Day focuses on sustainability!
On Tuesday, June 3, 2025, the 13th “Teaching Day” took place at the University of Paderborn, under the motto “Teaching for Future – Sustainable Teaching and Teaching about Sustainability”. The event was organized by the Office of Educational Innovations and University Didactics. Prof. Dr. Beate Flath, Vice President of the University, and Dr. Nerea Vöing, head of the staff office, opened the event.
A highlight of the day was the keynote speech by Prof. Dr. em. Gerd Michelsen from the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. He spoke about the “challenges and experiences” in sustainable higher education. At short notice he took the place of Prof. Dr. Matthias Barth from the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Michelsen emphasized the difficulties of sustainable transformation and emphasized that openness and innovative approaches are crucial for success.
Panel discussion and interactive formats
The subsequent panel discussion, moderated by Daniel Al-Kabbani from Creaversity, included contributions from Michelsen, Flath, Friederike Haver (sustainability speaker) and Svenja Volpers (AStA speaker for visual culture and sustainability). The participants discussed together the implementation of sustainability at the University of Paderborn. The high intrinsic motivation for sustainable issues within the university was emphasized.
In order to promote exchange, the event offered interdisciplinary formats such as round tables, workshops and a poster session. In addition, a university didactic “DisQspace” was set up, which offered space for discussion and exchange. The day ended with the presentation of awards for outstanding teaching, including the 2024 Innovation and Quality Improvement Award, which went to three projects.
Promotional prizes and awards
The funded projects included “Applied Inclusive Design for Software Engineers” (Prof. Dr. Yasemin Acar et al.), “STEPS: study-related development planning for sports students” (Prof. Dr. Jochen Baumeister et al.) and “FourMath: strategic – together – accompanied – for success in studying mathematical basic education” (Prof. Dr. Sebastian Rezat et al.).
In addition, teaching prizes were awarded to outstanding offerings. Magdalena Can received the prize for her event “Oral Communication in the German Language”, while Svenja Langer was honored for “Site-Specific Sculpture in the Space for Art Paderborn”. The awarding of university didactic certificates for “professional teaching competence in universities” rounded off the honors.
Impulse for the future
Parallel to the celebrations at the University of Paderborn, an important event is also being prepared at the national level. The call for papers for the international conference “Charting New Horizons for Education for Sustainable Development” is open until June 30, 2025. The conference, which will take place from November 19 to 21, 2025 at the Xplanatorium in Herrenhausen Castle in Hanover, aims to discuss creative and interdisciplinary approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) in higher education. The thematic focuses range from ESD and storytelling to democracy and peace.
Education for sustainable development is a central concept that must be integrated into higher education teaching. Universities must impart “change agent skills” to their students in order to prepare them for the challenges of the future. Graduates from all disciplines should deal with issues of sustainable development. uni-paderborn.de reports that the latest developments in the area of ESD are based on previous findings from projects such as HOCH-N and the ZKH knowledge pool.
In order to further advance developments in the area of ESD, the DG HochN invites everyone interested to take part in hubs and to help shape sustainable university teaching. unesco.de has provided information about the conference, which represent a significant step towards a sustainable future for education.
These initiatives illustrate the responsibility of universities and the importance of integrating sustainable topics into teaching in order to best prepare future generations for the challenges of our time.