New HNEE President takes office
The Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) has a new president: Prof Dr Matthias Barth took office yesterday and was warmly welcomed by numerous members of the university. Barth was unanimously elected by the university's Senate on 18 January 2021 and Minister of Science Dr Manja Schüle presented him with the certificate of appointment for his first six-year term of office on 25 August 2021.
"I am very much looking forward to the presidency at HNEE, the diverse sphere of activity, above all to tackle the major issues of the future, but also especially to the personal contact and exchange within the university," explained the new president. With its distinctive profile in studies, teaching and research, HNEE has national and international visibility, which must be further expanded. The focus is on the further development of innovative and skills-orientated study programmes as well as intensifying the sustainability transformation in society. As part of their studies at HNEE, students should develop even more skills and abilities to shape a sustainable future in practice.
Prof. Dr Wilhelm-Günther Vahrson, whose almost 22-year term of office ended on 28 February 2021, congratulated his successor on taking office. Barth is an experienced and internationally recognised figure in the field of environmental education and will continue to build on HNEE's excellent reputation and its role as a driving force for sustainable development.
Prof Dr Heike Walk led HNEE as interim president from the beginning of March until the end of August 2021 and received great encouragement and thanks from the university members for her commitment during this time. Prof. Walk will move to the Faculty of Sustainable Business as a professor, but will also resume her teaching activities in the international degree programmes at the Faculty of Forest and Environment.
The ceremonial inauguration of Prof. Dr Barth and farewell to long-standing President Prof. Dr Vahrson will take place on Friday, 17 September 2021, from 3 p.m. at Chorin Monastery. In addition to Brandenburg's Minister of Science, Dr Manja Schüle, the Chair of the Brandenburg State Rectors' Conference, Prof Dr Eva Schmitt-Rodermund, the Mayor of Eberswalde, Friedhelm Boginski, will also address the guests. In a panel discussion moderated by Prof. Dr Frank Ziegele, Prof. Dr Johanna Wanka, Dr Manja Schüle, Prof. Dr Sabine Kunst and Prof. Dr Daniel Lang will discuss visions and prospects for HNEE up to 2030.
About Prof. Dr Matthias Barth
Matthias Barth has made a name for himself both nationally and internationally with his extensive expertise in the field of higher education for sustainable development with a focus on skills development, innovative learning environments and curriculum development. Barth is a graduate environmental scientist, obtained his doctorate in educational sciences in 2007 and habilitated in sustainability sciences at Leuphana University Lüneburg in 2011. Until 2010, he was a lecturer in sustainability sciences at the UNESCO Chair of Higher Education for Sustainability at Leuphana University Lüneburg. In December 2012, Barth was appointed Professor of Teaching and Learning in Environmental Sciences at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences. Prior to this, until September 2012, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he led a research project on sustainability in higher education and student skills development.
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