HNEE's new mission statement: living sustainability in all areas of the university and shaping it together

The Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) has revised its previous mission statement. The University Senate unanimously approved the policy paper at its 214th meeting. This was preceded by an intensive and participatory discourse within the university, in which members from all areas of HNEE were involved.

As part of the university-wide strategy process, which began in February 2019 with an initial strategy conference involving various status groups at HNEE, questions were asked about HNEE's role and self-image in shaping social transformation processes. As part of the strategy process, the answers to these questions about the fundamental system of objectives for the university's actions led to a new mission statement for teaching, a research strategy and a transfer strategy. Building on this, students, teaching staff and the heads of the Round Table on Sustainable Development at HNEE continued the strategy process from December 2020 in a working group led by the Senate and formulated a new mission statement. The values, mission and vision typical of the university were addressed. The draft of the new mission statement was then further developed in the various structural units and committees. Following the Senate's decision on the revised mission statement, the sustainability principles are now being revised in a participatory process in order to define concrete goals and measure the achievement of these goals.

Prof. Dr Uta Steinhardt, then Chair of the Senate and now Vice President for Studies and Teaching at HNEE, was involved in the process together with Prof. Dr Benjamin Nölting, Head of the Sustainability Transformation Transfer Research Centre: "It was a productive, intensive and transparent process that involved a great deal of commitment from numerous university members. The different core competencies of individual university members complemented each other wonderfully," summarises Prof. Dr Nölting.

Laura Niggemann, student representative in the Senate, says: "I experienced the process of developing the mission statement as a positive example of what is described in the mission statement and what the university stands for - a place for dialogue and coming together where everyone feels comfortable. The current mission statement sharpens the university's profile and is an important building block for giving even greater weight to the necessary transfer of sustainability to society as one of HNEE's core tasks. Our mission now defines the university's mandate and thus the contribution that we as HNEE would like to make to students, the economy and society in the future," she adds.

"The university is a driving force for sustainable development in universities and society," states the mission statement. In addition to the overall institutional approach, there is a much greater need than before for "practically viable model solutions" and, on the student side, greater development of skills and methods in line with the ESD¹ approach in order to be able to shape the necessary transformation processes at different levels in society," says the President of HNEE, Prof. Dr Matthias Barth, who has been involved in the process of developing the mission statement even before he officially took office on 1 September 2021.

¹ Education for sustainable development

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