Future visions for St. Wendel: Students present ideas!

Future visions for St. Wendel: Students present ideas!

An exciting chapter in the partnership between the Trier University of Applied Sciences and the district town of St. Wendel was heralded on October 7, 2025 with an exciting excursion of 13 freshmen students from the Birkenfeld environmental campus. This joint initiative bears the sonorous title "Stadt.Land.Startup" and marks the official start of strategic cooperation, which was launched in September 2023. The focus of the partnership is on the networking of science and practice as well as the promotion of innovations, which are important for urban development, founding culture and sustainability in St. Wendel. According to [Sankt-wendel.de] (https://www.sankt-wendel.de/erste-staufen-gelebter- partner-studierende-des-kampus-birkenfeld-besuchen-st-wendel/), the students were presented and discussed many innovative ideas during their visit.

How important it is to promote the exchange between theory and practice is also evident in the conversations with Mayor Peter Klär and City manager Carina Clusserath. These encounters offered the students the opportunity to present their creative founding ideas to use the former Heuel areas in the Domgalerie. But that was not all: In order to get to know St. Wendel from his most beautiful side, the participants were invited to an interactive geocaching tour through the city and received insights into the "Brühlhaus Coworking Space" by owner Daniel Leismann, who showed practical perspectives in this context.

A happy ending and outlook

The exciting day ended with a sociable darts tournament in the music pub "Spinnrad", which at the same time offered a relaxed framework for informal conversations. The students and the city representatives were able to exchange their ideas and visions in a relaxed atmosphere. "We are already planning further joint projects," emphasized Henrik Te Heesen, the Vice President for Research at the Trier University of Applied Sciences. In addition, the spatial proximity to St. Wendel is highlighted as an advantage for the students, which further favors the development of a practice-oriented teaching and learning environment.

This cooperation falls into a larger framework of German university alliances, which are promoted under the program of European universities. The initiative aims to strengthen education, research and innovation within Europe. Currently, 65 European university alliance are active in which over 570 universities from 35 countries are involved. Germany is particularly strongly represented with 67 universities in 59 funded alliances. Among other things, these alliances are intended to create new mobility formats and improve the study experience for students by developing common curricula and flexible learning opportunities, how daad.de.

The first steps of this strategic partnership between the Trier University of Applied Sciences and the city of St. Wendel are promising and aim to not only improve the ability to study and success, but also to promote sustainable development in the region. The university's coordination office already supports the students with a variety of offers that are intended to make it easier to get started. This includes orientation events, pre- and bridge courses as well as workshops on the topics of exam anxiety or effective learning strategies. This ensures that every student is prepared for this new phase of life as best as possible, such as [Hochschule-trier.de] (https://www.hochschule-trier.de/studium/informations-service/studien entry/page).