The Stuttgart Way strongly influences the guiding principles of networked disciplines – a very important part of the University of Stuttgart’s profile. Cultural diversity and the consistent cooperation between complementary subjects encourage different ways of thinking. The Environmental Engineering Student Council strongly believes in diversity.
Introducing the team
The student council comprises all students enrolled on the Environmental Engineering study program – that is 459 students in total, including 221 women (48 percent). The student council is represented by a speaker and two deputies.
Environmental engineering is an engineering study program that comprises 48 percent women. This is also reflected in our student council projects. The balanced gender ratio ensures a relaxed working atmosphere that encourages people to get involved in our projects. Our graduates are also more successful than average – which is demonstrated by a comparatively low number of drop-outs. The students support and motivate each other to continue with the study program.
For us, it is very important that all students feel represented; that they feel they can come to us with any problems and that they want to get involved in the student council. The basis for this is a diverse team where many different opinions are represented.
We are still working on encouraging international students, who mostly first join the group during their master’s study program, to get more involved in the student council. We would like to encourage more students to get involved in the group.
If students are able to network and develop friendships during their studies, as well as developing personally, this makes it much easier for them to continue developing professionally in the future. The student council would like to give all students the opportunity to reach their full potential, to develop their own opinions and to try out new projects. The new perspectives that students can develop are then more diverse and richer and this is only possible if students are able to approach projects with an open mind.
About the series “Diversity Promotes Intelligence”
In a series of articles, we will be introducing teams who view diversity as a matter of course. The motivation behind this series, is the University of Stuttgart’s new diversity concept, initiated by the Vice Rector for Early Career research and Diversity.
How teams at the University of Stuttgart benefit from diversity
[Photos: o.A., GTUS-Max Partenfelder, o.A., o.A., o.A., o.A., o.A.]