Energy and Environmental Management
1.
Background
The curriculum 'Energy and Environmental Management'
was started in 1997 with substantial financial support from the Energy
Foundation Schleswig-Holstein and the INTERREG-II programme of the European Union.
The curriculum is a joint effort of the University of Flensburg the Flensburg
Polytechnic (Fachhochschule Flensburg).
2. Aim and Focus
The aim of the curriculum is to educate engineers with a strong second focus on
economics and business administration during a nine semester curriculum to
develop sustainable solutions for different energy and environmental problems
based on interdisciplinary approaches.
The curriculum leads to a German title of Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur, which
may roughly be translated as economic engineer. It is equivalent to a masters
degree in the Anglo-Saxon educational system. In the future, in the course of
the Bologna process, the curriculum will lead to the titles of Bachelor and
Master.
The curriculum puts great emphasis on an international orientation as many
energy and environmental problems are neither of pure national origin nor can
they be solved on a national basis alone. All students have to spend their
fifth semester at an university abroad to get a different perspective of energy
and environmental problems as well as some insights into the living conditions
and the campus life in other countries. A substantial number of advanced
courses are taught in English to further improve the familiarity of the
students with the English language and to facilitate international student
exchange. Thus, foreign students coming to Flensburg only need very basic
skills in German for their day to day life in Germany.
The core of the curriculum is basic solid technical education in energy and
environmental technologies with a somewhat greater emphasis on energy. The other main focus are economic and
business courses dealing with energy and environmental issues. The use of
renewable energy sources and the rational use of energy play a key role for
sustainable energy solutions. In times of deregulated energy markets, a phase
out of nuclear energy in advanced industrialised countries, and a steady
reduction of the use of fossil energy due to the need to combat man-made
climate change there is a growing need for a new breed of experts. These need
to be able to show how a growing demand for energy services can be met without
nuclear energy and a steady decline in fossil energy use. The graduates from
Flensburg will be ideally equipped for such tasks.
Furthermore, the curriculum is characterised by a strong orientation towards
practical problems. Through a three month internship between the fifth and the
sixth semester and a three month practical thesis (Praxisarbeit) building upon
the experiences of the internship the students get substantial experiences of
practical problems and their solutions. The practical thesis is tutored by a
practitioner as well as by a professor from the university. It picks up a
practical problem of the company at which the internship was done and tries to
develop a solution based on the methodologies taught at the university. This
solution should be directly applicable by the company.
3. Present situation
The interest of students to study Energy- and Environmental
Management has been steadily growing since its beginning in 1997. In 2005 for
the first time not all of the applicants could be accepted for the curriculum.
In order to maintain the advantage of the small size of the seminars and the
very personal tutoring by the faculty the number of students was limited to 70.
At the moment the faculty of Energy and Environmental Management consists of 23
full and part time members from the University of Flensburg and the Flensburg
Polytechnic. The engineering courses are taught by faculty form the Flensburg
Polytechnic, the economics and management courses are taught by faculty from
the University of Flensburg. First experiences have showed that there is a high
potential for our graduates to enter the market. The variety of job positions
is found among others in industry, research and government bodies.
4. The local setting
The University of Flensburg is a small university with about 4000 students.
Together with the approximately 3000 students of the Flensburg Polytechnic
these fit well into the 700 year old city of Flensburg and its approximately
100 000 inhabitants. Flensburg is located right on the German border to Denmark
approximately 150 km or 90 miles north of the city of Hamburg. It is located in
one of the most beautiful parts of Germany right on the Bay of Flensburg
(Flensburger Förde) at the Baltic Sea. The Bay of Flensburg compares well with
San Francisco Bay or Sydney Harbour. It is one of the major hubs of German
offshore sailing. As the inner city of Flensburg survived World War II quite
well and the surroundings of the city are quite beautiful, Flensburg offers
high living and recreational value.
5. International student exchange
The University of Flensburg puts great emphasis on international student
exchange. To facilitate this a substantial number of advanced courses in Energy
and Environmental Management are offered in English. Thus, students with either
substantial language skills in English or German can join the University of
Flensburg as exchange students for one or two semesters. As there are no
tuition charges for German universities exchange students only need to be able
to cover their travel and living expenses as well as the costs of textbooks. In
general 500-600 US$/month should be sufficient to cover living expenses in
Flensburg.
Exchange students should have sufficient basic education in energy and
environmental management to follow advanced courses. This normally requires
four to six semesters of B. A. or B. Sc. work in energy or environmental
management. This should include math and basic engineering courses as well as
basics in economics and management or business administration.
As the capacity for exchange students is limited students from universities
taking in exchange students from Flensburg are given preferential treatment.
From these universities exchange students are taken in at least on a one to one
exchange basis.
International exchange students can apply directly to:
Prof. Dr. Olav Hohmeyer
Co-ordinator Energy and Environmental Management
University of Flensburg
Munketoft 3b
D-24937 Flensburg
Germany
Phone: ++49-461- 805 2533, Fax: ++49-461- 805 2532
Email: hohmeyer@uni-flensburg.de
6. Conversion to Bachelor and Master
In the course of the Bologna process the curriculum
will lead to the titles of Bachelor and Master in the future. Probably the
students starting in 2006 will be the first ones in the new scheme. The close
cooperation between Flensburg University and Flensburg Polytechnic will be
maintained, but the main responsibility for the Bachelor will be with Flensburg
Polytechnic while the main responsibility for the Master will be with Flensburg
University. The curriculum will be very similar to the current curriculum with
some additional courses. The Bachelor will take 7 semesters including one
semester abroad and one semester with internship and Bachelor thesis. The
master will take three semesters including one semester for the master thesis.
7. Current curriculum 'Energy and Environmental Management' (Diplom)
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A. |
Basic studies (Semester 1-4) - Economics I (4 hours) - Man's impact on the environment (2 hours) - Electrical engineering (2 hours) - Economics II (4 hours) - Studium generale (general studies) (2 hours) 3. Semester - Heat and material transmission (2 hours)
- Environmental economics I (2 hours) - Environmental Technology I (2 hours) - Environmental Technology II (2 hours)
- Methods of scientific work (2 hours) |
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B. |
Advanced studies - Energy economics II (2 hours)
- Energy law I (2 hours)
- Conventional and renewable energy technology lab (2 hours) - Energy economics II (2 hours)
- Energy policy (2 hours)
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