From February 10 to 14, 2020, students and lecturers from eight European universities met in Hamburg to prepare for their work on international and interdisciplinary study projects. Five students are working on the aconium GmbH case study on calculating the carbon footprint of companies.
The special feature of these study projects is that the students work on real case studies provided by various companies, research institutions or public administrations. In addition to workshops on intercultural communication and team-building activities, the students had time during the seminar to formulate the problems of the case studies in the teams and analyse their interdisciplinary nature. In this way, they acquire a goal- and practice-oriented approach as well as soft skills – good preparation for their professional life.
In EPIC, teachers also become learners: In recent years, the partners have already developed teaching materials so that university lecturers can implement the problem-based approach themselves in an international context. Cooperation between universities and companies is a prerequisite for problem-based learning. The lecturers discussed strategies and best practice examples in a joint workshop with the companies represented in EPIC. In this way, aconium GmbH is helping to make teaching at European universities more relevant to practice. With the case study “Carbon footprint of companies”, aconium GmbH enables five students to implement a joint project across national and subject boundaries.
