Degree programme initiative: Environmental engineering study programme

The bachelor’s degree program in environmental engineering has existed in its current form since the conversion of the degree programs from Diplom to Bachelor (Bologna Reform 2003). In the past years, the curriculum was repeatedly adapted at short notice due to several emeritus professors. In 2018, an exploratory meeting of the Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU) revealed the need to revise the bachelor’s degree program. The adjustments made over the years are to be reviewed in the overall context in order to be able to continue to guarantee a high quality of education.
The disciplines of environmental engineering are constantly evolving. Teaching in the field of environmental topics should reflect the dynamics of the discipline. This requires the teaching of up-to-date subject matter with appropriate teaching methodology. The diversity of environmental engineering with an interdisciplinary, mathematical-scientific and engineering-technical basic education at the highest level should thus also be expressed in the coming years.

The objectives of the bachelor revision were first formulated in July 2018 and further detailed in the course of the project. These are briefly outlined below:
– The basic subjects (mathematical and scientific fundamentals) are to form a sound and compact basic education and enable students for the engineering subjects. The condensation of the basic subjects is intended to prevent overloading of the timetable and to test the subjects for their suitability for the overall course of study.
– Increasing the choices available to students to acquire broad environmental engineering-specific expertise in addition to deep Ba-sis knowledge.
– Incorporating new integrative and interdisciplinary courses.
– Introduction of new courses that exploit the technical capabilities of existing professorships as a result of new appointments.
– Integration of lectures in the field of data processing and analysis in order to prepare students for the rapid development in digitalization. There is also a focus on teaching the necessary skills in existing courses.
– Rearrangement of the curriculum so that students come into contact with environmental engineering-specific courses at an early stage.

This is a BSc program revision and thus the entire curriculum has been reviewed and revised. Space has been created to integrate new subject-specific elective courses and thus create greater flexibility in the study program.

All goals were successfully achieved and in addition we were able to implement new tools, such as the online expertise query for the individual courses and the study program video for better visibility. What we would like to emphasize is that the team included representatives of students who were still in the BSc or already in the MSc and just went through the BSc. This is highly recommended, as we lecturers received a lot of helpful tips, which we were then able to implement and this led to the satisfaction of the students.