Inhaltspezifische Aktionen

IVAC

Virtual academic collaboration between Justus Liebig University Gießen and the University of Sydney: 04/2023 - 12/2023
 
  • Context and Objective

The project aims at the establishment of an international, cross-border, collaboration between Justus Liebig University Gießen (JLU) and the University of Sydney (USyd), which will allow for intercultural and academic exchanges between lecturers and students of Germany and Australia, in the academic field of Sustainable Development. This collaborations will take place in the context of two Master’s programmes.

JLU’s Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Management offers a fully digital Master’s Degree Programme on Sustainable Transition. This is a programme with an acknowledged expertise in the scientific analysis of agricultural and food systems. 

This Master’s programme is closely linked to the  “SDGnexus Network” -funded by the DAAD, a community of academics committed to advancing the implementation of the internationally adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a nexus-approach. This Master’s program includes a course on “Complex Systems and Sustainable Development”, which introduces the concept of social-ecological systems and systems’ thinking for advancing the implementation of the SDGs and achieving a sustainable transition.

The School of Physics at the USyd offers a Master’s of Sustainability Programme. This programme includes courses taught by professors from the Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA) research team. The ISA is a group of senior researchers leading the development of Input-Output (IO) analysis for social and environmental “footprint” calculations. ISA has produced reports for major corporations, Federal and State Government agencies, and NGOs in Australia and overseas. Two courses offered within this Master’s are: “Environmental Footprints and IO Analysis” and “Life Cycle Analysis”. These courses provide students with practical skills for carrying out footprint calculations, and Life-Cycle Assessments. They include a comprehensive introduction to IO analysis for identifying impacts embodied in regional, national, and global supply chains.

Considering the potential complementarity of these Master’s courses, this project  establishes a collaboration between JLU and USyd, in which they will apply digital educational technologies and concepts of teaching-based partnerships, in combination with their research and thematic expertise, to develop a series of joint activities and research-based materials useful for both Master’s programmes. Hence, this project will develop digital skills, generate international experiences, and enhance teaching efforts in both academic institutions, as well as further develop a collaborative and important research stream (i.e., SDGs nexus assessments across global value chains), which will open the door for successive and scalable future cooperation. 

The inter-university collaboration consists of: 

  • The generation of research-based teaching material from the effective merging of the Master’s courses.
  • The joint development of professional video-lectures for blended and asynchronous teaching using digital educational technologies.
  • The setting of a virtual workspace for further asynchronous discussions with the lecturers and among peers.
  • A guest lecture from a professor of the partner university (USyd).
  • A virtual student workshop where students from both universities will interact.
  • A hybrid academic seminar open to students and faculty from both collaborating universities.
  • The formation of a thematic inter-university virtual community, as basis for the formation of a thematic Community of Practice

 

  • Principal Investigator
  • Teachers

Full Professor for Agricultural and Food Market Analysis
at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences,
and Environmental Management,
Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Senior Scientist at the Center for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU)

Justus-Liebig University, Giessen

      
 

Associate Professor in Sustainability,  Integrated Sustainability Analysis group at the School of Physics and in the Discipline of Accounting, Governance & Regulation at the Business School

University of Sydney