Sustainable Development

Full course description

This course is not your traditional academic semester abroad, by far not. While humanity let the world unfold in most unsustainable ways for decades, we will learn and work together at the development of a young generation truly capable of action for sustainable change. We welcome you to Europa as the most magnificent learning ground for your personal development in every sense and way.

By ways of studying future-defining themes such as Food, Water, Energy, Engineering, and Health, you will grow strategic and crucial in-depth understanding of what sustainable development really means. Largely situated in ‘the real’, your well-wrought academic studies will become meaningful and applicable through continuous exchange with experts and organizations that presently steer our societal and economic development. Your studies will take you beyond the lecture hall to problem-based learning and teamwork in small groups, throughout the city, region, and (far) beyond – wherever the learning takes you. We will be right next to you on a journey marked with site visits, interviews with leading policymakers, entrepreneurs and scientists, your exploration of real life. While learning about contemporary efforts and policies to address climate change, inequality, and globalization, you will learn to understand what these phenomena really entail and how they can be addressed through your thinking and designing towards your actions.

The course will strengthen your capacity to learn and understand the world as it was, is, and can unfold by discussing the thoughts of our greatest philosophers, ideas you will be able to grasp and reflect on, brought near to you in Europe as a cradle of culture. Boots on the ground, you will develop your own critical constructive view of society, growing deep roots through a process of natural learning, touching Earth and the complex relationship with all life forms, their wellbeing and human welfare.

Building on the vision that young people no longer ‘have’ but ‘are’ the future, your capacity to turn thinking into action will be a key driver of your learning process. Understanding the essence of entrepreneurship in the realm of globally interconnected markets, production, and supply chains will thereto be a continuous thread throughout the course. Seeking to understand human behaviour through the lens of consumption and lifestyles, you will study key elements of positive psychology that will also feedback to a better understanding of yourself. The course will enrich your entire perspective on the world today and how it can develop in a more sustainable way – becoming more aware of your own position and taking control of your potential.