Universities can play an important role for shaping the future of the world society in terms of sustainable development “by addressing sustainability through their major functions of education, research and outreach” (Fadeeva and Mochizuki, 2010, p. 250). Many universities from all over the world have already initiated activities in terms of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) (cf. Barth, 2013; Fadeeva and Mochizuki, 2010; Adomßent et al., 2009; Adomßent and Michelsen, 2006). Against the background of global change and increasing complexity, Higher Education for Sustainable Development aims at enabling people to not only acquire and generate knowledge, but also to reflect on further effects and the complexity of behaviour and decisions in a future-oriented and global perspective of responsibility. Consequently, absolutely essential is a new learning culture which does not confirm academic tradition but examines its potential for a sustainable future, in an open-minded, reflexive and participative process.

Universities have to become a learning academia – they should create teaching and learning settings which can be characterised by aspects as inter- and transdisciplinarity, participation, problem-orientation as well as the linking of formal and informal learning and, thus, should facilitate the development of key competencies needed for dealing with (un)sustainable development (Rieckmann, 2012; Wiek et al., 2011; Barth et al., 2007).

In recent years, the Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany) has carried out the necessary restructuring of the existing higher education curriculum within the framework of the so-called Bologna process as an opportunity to fundamentally change its courses of study. Within this process, the consideration of sustainable development as a guiding principle played a crucial role. The reorientation of university curricula under the framework of the Bologna Process was used to implement previous experiences in HESD. Since the winter semester of 2007/08, all Bachelor programmes at Leuphana University have followed a single study model, which consists of a Major, a Minor, complementary studies and the Leuphana Semester as the first study semester (Barth and Timm, 2011).

This Leuphana Bachelor is characterised by a compulsory module on sustainability (called ‘Responsibility in Science’) for all students in the first semester. One third of the first semester is completely devoted to the topic of sustainability. Students of all subjects work under the overall theme of ‘Responsibility in Science’ on the question how the concept of sustainable development may be used as a normative framework for responsible action. In this module, the goal is to promote the personal development of the students as well as to enable them to cope with complex situations and to make meaningful decisions. Students get to know the concept of sustainability and have to run a small research project on sustainability-related issues.

Against this background this paper analyses which effects the full integration of sustainability into university teaching has on the skills, attitudes, values and interests of students. The study’s objective is to examine the impacts of the compulsory module ‘Responsibility in Science’ on students’ attitudes, values, interests and competencies.

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