Future visions for St. Wendel: Students present ideas!

Future visions for St. Wendel: Students present ideas!

An exciting chapter in the partnership between Trier University of Applied Sciences and the district town of St. Wendel was heralded on October 7, 2025 with an exciting excursion by 13 first-semester students from the Birkenfeld Environmental Campus. This joint initiative has the illustrious title “Stadt.Land.Startup” and marks the official start of a strategic collaboration that was launched in September 2023. The focus of the partnership is on networking science and practice and promoting innovations that are important for urban development, a start-up culture and sustainability in St. Wendel. According to sankt-wendel.de, many innovative ideas were presented and discussed to the students during their visit.

The importance of promoting the exchange between theory and practice is also shown in the conversations with Mayor Peter klar and city manager Carina Clüsserath. These encounters gave the students the opportunity to present their creative start-up ideas for using the former Heuel space in the cathedral gallery. But that wasn't all: In order to get to know St. Wendel from its most beautiful side, the participants were invited to an interactive geocaching tour through the city and were given insights into the “Brühlhaus Coworking Space” from owner Daniel Leismann, who presented practical perspectives in this context.

A happy ending and outlook

The exciting day ended with a friendly darts tournament in the “Spinnrad” music bar, which also offered a relaxed setting for informal conversations. The students and 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, Vice President for Research at Trier University. In addition, the spatial proximity to St. Wendel is highlighted as an advantage for the students, which further promotes the development of a practice-oriented teaching and learning environment.

This collaboration falls within a larger framework of German university alliances that are funded under the European Universities Program. The initiative aims to strengthen education, research and innovation within Europe. There are currently 65 European university alliances active, involving over 570 universities from 35 countries. Germany is particularly well represented with 67 universities in 59 funded alliances. These alliances are intended, among other things, to create new mobility formats and improve the study experience for students by developing common curricula and flexible learning opportunities, as daad.de reports.

The first steps in this strategic partnership between Trier University of Applied Sciences and the city of St. Wendel are promising and aim to not only improve study ability and success, but also to promote sustainable development in the region. The university's coordination office already supports students with a variety of offers that are intended to make it easier for them to start their studies. This includes orientation events, preliminary and bridging courses as well as workshops on the topics of test anxiety or effective learning strategies. This ensures that every student is best prepared for this new phase of life, as hochschule-trier.de emphasizes.