Coaching Programme: Dialogue with Higher Education Institutions

Pursue your goals with support by experts in the field

Event description

What is this programme about?
If you are planning to implement your sustainability idea at your higher education institution (HEI) or want to help your HEI become more sustainable, don’t miss out on this programme! Our experienced students and experts will provide coaching and support for you and your project team, so you can enter a successful dialogue with relevant stakeholders at your HEI or other HEIs. Through this programme you will develop or improve your skills in establishing contact, targeting, discussing or presenting demands with / to your HEI. We are happy to support you in reaching your goals — on a local or national level — and to close the gap between you, your student project (or idea) and the responsible stakeholders at HEIs.

What does “coaching programme” mean?
A coaching programme is a method of achieving set goals (further information). The coach helps your student group (coachees) through a set of three individual meetings to narrow down a goal of a project in dialogue with HEIs, to find the best way to achieve this goal and reveal hidden potential within your student group. The coach doesn’t present solutions on how to achieve your goals, but asks you questions through which your student group finds the solutions themselves.

What does “dialogue with higher education institutions” mean?
Dialogue with higher education institutions is a field of engagement which is overlapping with many other fields. With “higher education institutions” we mean the three main types of higher education institutions present on the Swiss landscape: Universities, Universities of Applied Sciences and Universities of Teacher Education. “Dialogue” is a way of action to contact, discuss with, or suggest change to relevant stakeholders. Dialogue is a common practice for student sustainability projects and organisations in order to reach out to their higher education institution.

There are different categories of dialogue with HEIs:
– Governance: Internal strategy of the HEI (official strategy, mission, sustainability commission and office, sustainability professorship, including voices of students);
– Teaching: All things affecting what is being taught (e.g. curricula);
– Research: All things affecting research being undertaken (e.g. funding);
– Campus & Operations: All things taking place in the concrete, real world (e.g. energy, resources, waste, mobility and transport, finance, cafeteria);
– Community Relations: All public synergies (e.g. public lectures)

Some common examples of dialogue with higher education institutions are:
– Develop a student sustainability policy for your HEI(s)
– Demand for funding for your sustainability project at your HEI
– Advocate for sustainable and accessible infrastructure at your HEI (e.g. consistent wheelchair access in HEI buildings, gender safety (such as bathrooms).
– Demand that sustainability is more integrated into teaching

For whom is this programme?
– Student groups and student organisations that would like to start dialogue(s) with HEIs
– Student groups and student organisations that are already carrying out dialogue(s) with HEIs and would like to improve this dialogue(s) or don’t know how to continue with the process

What you can expect from this coaching programme

– to meet like-minded students engaging with sustainability
– to get useful insights and advice from an expert in the field of dialogue with HEIs
– to gain experience in the dialogue with and the targeting of different stakeholders at HEIs
– to pursue your goals in dialogue with HEIs

Timeline

– Matching period: Monday, 21st – Sunday, 27th March 2022
– Kick-off: Monday, 28th March 2022, 6pm – 8pm
– 3 individual meetings (1 hour each) with your assigned coach: Tuesday, 29th March – Sunday, 15th May 2022
– Closing phase, hand-in of report and testimonial: Sunday, 15th May – Tuesday, 31th May 2022

Preparation

As preparation for the coaching programme and, especially, for your registration, you need to build up a small project group of 2-5 students and to define a student representative who will be in charge of the communication with the coach and Focus Sustainability. Furthermore, you need to define a project in dialogue with one or several HEI(s) that you are currently pursuing or hope to pursue in the future, and that you would like to further develop during the coaching programme. You find all relevant information in the registration form (see below).

To fully register for the programme, you and your team have to fill in both registration forms.

Registration form: contact infomation
This first registration form has to be filled in by every member of the student group. Please define a name for your student group in advance

Registration form: about your project
This second registration form needs to be filled in only one time and by the contact person of your student group.

How does the matching process work?
– The project management of Focus Sustainability takes charge of the matching between the coach and student group (coachees). After a period of consideration, the project management of Focus Sustainability will send a confirmation via e-mail to the student group with relevant information about the relevant coach.
– The matching between the coaches and a student groups is carried out by Focus Sustainability and not by the coachees nor the coaches. The decision about the matching will be based on compatibility between the expertise of the coaches and the focus of the coachees. Relevant information will be collected in the registration form.

Facilitation

Michelle Studer, Project Co-Manager at Focus Sustainability: Contact person for questions and support for coachees and coaches

Coaches

Alexander Powell studies at the University of Teacher Education (PH FHNW) in Muttenz and is a member of the executive committee of the Swiss Union of Students of Teacher Education (VSPHS). He has been active as a student representative in local and national student organisations — for example, the Swiss Student Union (VSS-UNES-USU) — since 2018. Alexander can coach in English, German and Italian (maybe also French).

Marie-Claire Graf studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and political science at University of Zurich. She was part of several local student sustainability committees and since 2016 president of the Swiss Association of Student Organisations for Sustainability (VSN-FDD-FSS). Currently, she is working for the Climate Alliance on national climate politics and with the UN Climate Change on training youth negotiators.
Marie-Claire can coach in English and German.

Muguette Müller is currently completing a Masters in Pedagogy in Melbourne, Australia, so would only be able to coach online. Muguette is still active in her roles in the Swiss HEI politics landscape: She is running the local Sustainability Week in Basel, the AG Nachhaltigkeit in Basel, the HEI Politics Department in the Swiss Association of Student Organisations for Sustainability (VSN-FDD-FSS), and is  the president of the Sustainability Working Group of the Swiss Student Union (VSS-UNES-USU). Muguette can coach in English and German (maybe also  Italian and French).

Maxime Barthassat is a law student at University of Fribourg and works as an elected member of the executive committee of the Swiss Student Union (VSS-UNES-USU) in Bern. The main purpose of the union is to represent students on a national level. Among other actors, the union maintains close relations with the management of the various Swiss higher education institutions. Maxime can coach in English, French and German (ev. Italian).

Simon Zysset is project manager for sustainable universities at WWF Switzerland. His focus is on degree programmes, especially in economic sciences. As a volunteer, he is involved in educational projects for migrants. Simon would preferably like to coach in German.

Admission

This coaching programme is open to all students at Swiss higher education institutions and is free of charge.

Liability 

Coaching is a voluntary commitment that coachees and coaches make to each other. The coachees and coaches will define a binding framework for the coaching with an agreement (will be provided).

Language

English, German, French

Sign up until Sunday, 20th March 2022