UO English Studies students have completed international FORTHEM project

On 23 June 2026, second-year English Studies students at the University of Opole received certificates confirming their participation in the international project “Sustainability Around Us”, carried out as part of the FORTHEM Alliance Team-Teaching programme. Second-year biology and medicine students from the University of Latvia also took part in the project, forming international teams that worked together in English.

The programme comprised over eight hours of joint sessions devoted to issues of sustainability – one of the key areas of today’s European Union policies. During successive meetings, participants analysed the importance of responsible and sustainable actions and their impact on building a more conscious and secure future.

The starting point for the work was the European report GreenComp: The European Sustainability Competence Framework, which provides a framework for competences in the field of sustainability. Together, the students analysed the challenges arising from the lack of sustainable practices in areas such as food, medicine and clothing production (fast fashion), as well as the impact of humans on ecosystems, inter alia, lichens and mangrove forests.

The sessions were led by the project coordinators – Aleksandra Baryłowicz, PhD, from the University of Opole, and Līga Belicka, MA, from the University of Latvia. Working in international and interdisciplinary teams, the students discussed, analysed source materials, conducted short opinion surveys and compared the scale of selected problems in Poland and Latvia. Their collaboration resulted in the development of original projects proposing sustainable solutions, which were presented during the final meeting.

The “Sustainability Around Us” project is an example of the effective use of the team-teaching approach, which combines the teaching potential of lecturers from different HEIs and enables students to develop language, intercultural and project-based skills in an international academic environment.