Teaching

The topic of “planetary health” is a new focus throughout the entire human medicine curriculum. "Planetary health" recognizes the interactions between humans, animals and the environment. The increasing health effects created by global environmental changes caused by humans are a major focus. The climate crisis is widely regarded as the greatest single health threat of the 21st century. Expert researchers, the Office of the Dean of Studies, the Faculty of Medicine and students therefore came together to develop a planetary health curriculum. The curriculum is first being incorporated into the Bachelor’s program (beginning in fall semester 2022) and then the Master’s program. In addition to a few new courses, the contents are largely integrated into existing courses and are linked thematically. The topic can be studied in more depth in the elective offerings, e.g., in projects on sustainable nutrition and health or on the reduction of emissions and resources in hospital operations. The high demand for this events proves that sustainability is a topic of great interest to medical students.

Since 2019, IMPULS has supported teaching staff  (in all disciplines at the University of Basel) who want to integrate sustainability-related topics into their courses and organize student projects. The projects are developed by students based on the course topic and in collaboration with internal and external organizations. In the period from spring 2021 until fall 2022, 14 courses were funded. Numerous students developed and implemented projects through December 2022. IMPULS is run by the Sustainability Office and supported by funding from U Change (Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences) and the University of Basel.

2022 was Prof. Paul Burger’s last year at the University of Basel before his retirement in spring 2023. As the co-director of the Master’s Degree in Sustainable Development, he taught more than 200 courses on sustainable development since 2005 and, together with his colleagues, led over 300 students to successful completion of the Master’s program.

He served as director of the Sustainability Research Group beginning in 2006, making tremendous contributions to sustainability research. He focused on theoretical requirements and conditions as well as empirical possibilities and limitations of transformation processes aimed toward sustainability.

In connection with the tri-national university partnership “Eucor – The European Campus”, students from the University of Basel, the University of Freiburg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have had the opportunity, since the fall semester 2022, to earn an Eucor certificate in addition to the regular sustainability certificate. Since 2022, the University of Basel has also been associated via the Eucor partnership with the European university alliance EPICUR, in which it cooperates with nine European universities in the areas of teaching and doctoral training. One focal point of the cross-border collaboration is the development of teaching formats that demonstrate interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability topics and promote cross-cultural reflection on paths to developing sustainable societies. 

Multiple open online courses offer students from the University of Basel and other universities, as well as interested members of the public, the opportunity to further explore research focusing on sustainability-related topics in an international environment. For example, the following two courses were offered in 2021 and 2022: