How can we teach people to deal with climate change? Sophie Fischer and Professor Dr Holger Walter are researching this at THWS. In collaboration with European universities and with EU funding of EUR 250,000, they are developing innovative solutions in the "Personal Green Skills in Higher Education" project.
Published on 26 June 2025
Heat, drought, flash floods: global climate change is leading to extreme weather events – and thus creating complex challenges for people. How can we learn to deal with this? A team from the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS) wants to find answers to these questions. Since November 2023, Sophie Fischer from the Institute for Digital Engineering (IDEE) and Professor Dr. Holger Walter from the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences and Humanities have been working together with five other European universities on the "Personal Green Skills in Higher Education" project, which is being funded by the European Union with EUR 250,000 over two years.
Soft skills as a solution: what are personal green skills?
Personal green skills fall under the category of soft skills. These skills refer to how people can make their personal lifestyles sustainable and contribute meaningfully to society – for example, by separating waste or keeping track of their personal carbon footprint. This applies not only to students, but also to educators, who can innovatively integrate the relevant ideas into their teaching.
The role of students: promoting personal responsibility
Each of the six partner universities is working on different aspects. At THWS, courses are being designed and tested within the pilot project. "The gap between existing knowledge and actual implementation is often very large. We want to close this gap, even if there is no universal recipe for doing so," says Professor Dr. Walter, explaining the aim of the new courses.
One approach is the Blended Learning Intensive Programme (BIP). Here, students are given a catalogue of diverse current problems from which they choose a topic and work on it independently. The lecturers provide support with guidelines and examples of other solutions to the problems. This process is designed to help students develop intrinsic motivation that would not arise from external guidelines. Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan Schmitt, former head of the IDEE institute and now THWS Vice-President for Research and Entrepreneurship, shares his experience: "It is much more effective when lecturers learn how to give students this freedom. In return you get input from the students that you didn't expect. That's what makes this process so exciting."
Insights into project development
The BIP is being tested in a pilot phase with 25 students and lecturers from all partner universities. The pilot phase consists of a self-study component, in which participants choose a topic, which they research and implement, as well as a block seminar. In this block seminar students come together in Schweinfurt in international teams and work together on their projects. "It is important that people talk to each other," says Professor Dr. Walter. "Problems that are urgent for us may not be a problem at all in other countries. The exchange between different countries can help to better assess the relevance of certain problems." Finally, the chosen project is presented to the plenary as an examination. The aim is to finalise as many ideas and projects as possible on how we can live more sustainably and put them into practice.
Prepared for uncertainty: decision-making processes and complexity
By the end of the course, students should be able to carry out difficult assessment processes. This is because in their working lives, they will occupy important positions and have to make decisions that are becoming increasingly complex due to growing uncertainties and influences. "In such a world, it is our legal duty to train individuals who can deal with this complexity and weigh up different aspects when making difficult decisions," says Professor Dr.-Ing. Schmitt.
Nevertheless, the course is intended for learners and teachers who are already interested in the topic of sustainability. Vice-President Professor Dr.-Ing. Schmitt explains why it is also worthwhile for lecturers to incorporate personal green skills into their courses: "Participating in such projects broadens your horizons, and there's no harm in trying something new."
European cooperation: from Germany to Spain
The project has an international focus aimed at broadening the horizons of participants and developing solutions together. The International Office (HSIN), represented by its head Dr. Daniel Wimmer, his team and Manuel Glattbach, provides particular support in cross-border cooperation and networking. This has been a success: the "Uninovis" alliance was successfully established together with universities in Lithuania, Finland, Austria, and Spain. Since 2024, the "Uninovis" alliance has even been a "European University" and is funded by the EU with 1.2 million euros.
Together with its partner universities, HSIN initiated the "Personal Green Skills in Higher Education" project and provided intensive support for the successful application to the EU. At THWS, the project is led by the Institute for Digital Engineering. Sophie Fischer, who previously carried out the "MainKlimaPlus" project, is now contributing her knowledge to the "Personal Green Skills" project. Professor Dr. Holger Walter, who already taught the interdisciplinary module "Understanding Climate Change", enthusiastically joined the project. In addition to meetings such as the "Train-the-Trainer" format in Vienna in winter 2024, European cooperation continues via online conferences and a joint working platform for the exchange of documents.
Visions for the future: the next steps
The project will end in October 2025. Before then, a final conference with scientific contributions will take place. The course will then be offered regularly as a general elective course (AWPF) with 2.5 ECTS credits. For Vice-President Schmitt, it would be a great benefit "if the lecturers were to incorporate the ideas into their other courses out of their own interest". This concept is also to be implemented at the partner universities and brought to life by lecturers in Kaunas in Lithuania, Tampere in Finland, Malaga in Spain, the Italian region of Campania, and Vienna in Austria.
Appropriate funds are required to finance regular meetings with European partners. In any case, further projects and applications are already in the pipeline as part of the "Uninovis" initiative. It remains to be seen exactly which of these will be approved and implemented, as competition for EU funding is fierce. The issue of sustainability will continue to play a major role in this context. Professor Dr. Walter sums it up: "We will experience massive changes in the environment and in our society, and if we do not prepare our students for this, then we have failed."
The Personal Green Skills in Higher Education project
- Objective: Teaching formats to promote sustainable lifestyles and soft skills
- Project period: 11/2023 to 10/2025
- EU funding: EUR 250,000
- Implemented at THWS by: Sophie Fischer, Professor Dr Holger Walter
- Cooperation: Universities from Lithuania, Finland, Austria, Spain, Italy and THWS form the "Uninovis" alliance as a "European University"
