EENHANCING NHANCING AATTRACTIVENESS OF TTRACTIVENESS OF EENVIRONMENTAL NVIRONMENTAL AASSESSMENT AND SSESSMENT AND MMANAGEMENT HIGHER EDUCATIONANAGEMENT HIGHER EDUCATION

Seminar on Seminar on Experiences in China and the EUExperiences in China and the EU

Nankai University, Tianjin, 20.03.-21.03.2010Nankai University, Tianjin, 20.03.-21.03.2010

Presentation Dr. Aschemann• Title: “Teaching EA at an Austrian University:

Experiences and challenges”• Director of “Austrian Institute for the

Development of Environmental Assessment” (ANIDEA), Graz/Austria (www.anidea.at)

• Senior Lecturer at Graz University, Inst. for System Science, Innovation and Sustainability Research (ISIS), URL: www.uni-graz.at/isis

Structure

• Austrian universities• Courses on “environmental assessment“• Experiences• Challenges• Final remarks

Austrian universities• Public universities: 22• Private universities: 12• Universities of applied sciences

(“Fachhochschulen” in German): 19• Federal Ministry of Science and Research

(FMSR); autonomy of universities since University Act 2002, last amendment 2009

• Management: Rector, Academic Senate and University Council

Source: BMWF (FMSR)

Source: BMWF (FMSR)

Number of students in Austria

• 240,000 students at universities+• 35,000 students at universities of applied sciences+• 5,000 students at private universities=• 280,000 students total 8,355,500 population 3.4 %

Courses on Env. Assessment (EA)

• No full M.Sc. or B.Sc. programme in EA (or in environmental management, EM) in Austria, yet

• But: Different courses/lectures/modules in EA (e.g. Graz University, Graz University of Technology, Vienna University, Klagenfurt University, …)

• Courses in EA related fields, such as assessment techniques, indicators, GIS, environmental legislation, environmental economics, environmental planning, environmental management etc.

• Focus of this presentation on Graz University

Graz University

• Founded 1585 (this year 425th anniversary)• Six Nobel Prize Awards (e.g. 1933 Erwin Schrödinger

for physics)• Six faculties; 74 institutes; 22,000 students; 2,800

graduates/year; 100 degree programmes, most of which following Bologna structure; staff 3,500 (2,500 scientific); 170 mio € budget/year plus third-party funds (EU, national ministries, national research funds, commissioned by industry, …)

Source: www.uni-graz.at

Some impressions

Source: www.uni-graz.at

Excursus: EA framework in Austria

– Austrian EIA Act (implementation of EC EIA Directive)

– Austrian SEA legislation (implementation of the EC SEA Directive)

– Federal country (thus, legislation at federal and provincial level)

– Long (environmental/land-use) planning tradition with many experiences/know how gathered

EA teaching experiences (1)

• B.Sc. and M.Sc. Programme “Environmental system sciences” with courses in, inter alia, EA and environmental management (Graz Univ.)

• Motivation and interest of students in EA are varying, but that is not specific to EA

• Use of WebCT or Moodle (e-learning platforms) turned out to be positive

• Invitation of guest speakers (e.g. environmental ombudsman of Styria, EA practitioner) offered valuable input from the “non-academic” world

EA teaching experiences (2)

• Legislation issues (Requirements of EC Directives or annexes of Austrian EIA Act) sometimes difficult to understand for students

• Visualisation (e.g. EA process shown as flow diagram, assessment matrix) eases understanding of complex issues

• Case studies as suitable means for explaining and demonstrating EA in practice EIA Database of Environment Agency Austria including EIS and other documents

EA teaching challenges (1)

• Diversity instead of uniformity: Guest speakers, e-learning platforms, use of case studies, role plays etc.

• Updating lectures in order to offer state-of-the-art knowledge

• Try to present legislation issues more attractive for students

• Overcome students’ resistance to journal papers (and English language)

EA teaching challenges (2)

• Clarifying the relations to the professional world (e.g. application of EIA Act for different professions)

• Encouraging interested students to be curious in order to know more and detailed EA issues ( e.g. master thesis)

• Make clear, that study is not a burden, but the education for the (professional and private) future of the students

Final remarks (1)

• Experiences and challenges in teaching EA are not unique

• EA (as teaching and research issue) is crucial and will become more important in the future

• The “Bologna process” (with its three main objectives mobility, international competitiveness, employability) requires efforts for scholars and students

Final remarks (2)

• Joint degree (or double/multiple degree) master programmes are one key mean to implement the objectives of “Bologna”

• E.g., Graz University is currently preparing a joint degree M.Sc. on “Industrial Ecology” with partner universities in Sweden, The Netherlands, the U.S., Japan and Thailand, covering various EA and EM courses/topics

Thank you for your kind attention!