We’re inviting students to a summer school organised as part of a joint study programme run by the Charles University Environment Center and Institut für Umweltkommunikation, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg (an institution which currently holds the title of UNESCO Chair “Higher Education for Sustainable Development”). The summer school will take place from 1 – 9 September 2012 on the Czech-German border in the Ore Mountain village of Hora Svaté Kateřiny. The language used will be English. You can find out more on the environmental issues of this region here (in Czech only). Most of the costs connected to the summer school will be covered by the organisers; students are expected to pay only a token registration fee of CZK 1,000.

The number of places is limited, so preference will be given to those students who registered first, so don’t wait until the last minute! You can find the registration page here.

The programme is based on international interdisciplinarily organised learning in the field of environmental and sustainable development led by teachers from the participating universities and students from the Czech Republic and Germany (and potentially other countries). The summer school will focus on issues of sustainable development primarily at the regional level – it will look into challenges manifested in the North Bohemian region, the Ore Mountains and the sub-Ore Mountain area. The learning will utilise and further expand upon case studies about the main regional issues. You can find details about last year’s summer school here.

As part of the summer school students will look at serious regional challenges in practice connected with the mining of lignite. Their work under the leadership of experienced lecturers will focus mainly on the analysis of important regional “actors” from the point of view of their activities, interests, contributions to the development of the region, influence, initiatives, and power and other characteristics. The result of this analysis will be a study mapping the important relationships between the significant “players” in the region which identifies potential sources of conflict and opportunities for change. During their study, the students will have the opportunity to meet the most significant representatives of the region and will be able to test useful methods in practice for community planning.

The summer school is accredited by the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague for students at the Bachelor level and is worth 3 ECTS credits. It is labelled in the information system under the following title and code: Summer School within the Interdisciplinary Study Programme on Sustainability and Globalisation (YBQ008). Students of other universities are more than welcome, and upon conclusion of the summer school they will receive confirmation of completion and obtain credits which can be recognised by the parent university. The programme is part of the international Virtual Campus for Sustainable Europe (VCSE) network of cooperation on education for sustainable development. The summer school is part of an a blended learning project called Interdisciplinary Study Programme on Sustainability (ISPoS) supported by the DBU foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt) and the MOSUR project. You can find more information about it here.

Our contact information:

Charles University
Environment Center (CUEC)

Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We look forward to meeting you at the summer school and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.