Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions in Germany: Advances, Challenges, Examples

[EN] In this paper, Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions is introduced as a field of research and application. An interdisciplinary German collaboration on Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions – HOCHN – serves as an example of how this topic is addressed on a national level. Results and advances of the HOCHN collaboration are summarized. Moreover, challenges of implementing sustainability-related organizational development at universities are discussed. Focusing on Education for Sustainable Development at universities, three different methodologies are outlined that exceed conventional approaches in tertiary education: Lego® Serious Play® methodology, constellation techniques, and a coaching program on the “Five Minds for the Future”. They illustrate different ways of addressing issues of Education for Sustainable Development and skills and habits respectively that are crucial for achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.Schmitt, C.; Bassen, A.; Müller-Christ, G. (2019). Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions in Germany: Advances, Challenges, Examples. En HEAD'19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1009-1017. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD19.2019.9216OCS1009101

Sustainable Practices in research-integrated Education in HE: towards an accepted Development Pedagogy

[EN] It is a truth universally acknowledged that in UK Higher Education Institutions excellent is the new good. With HEIs striving to achieve ‘excellence in teaching’ in order to attract the best students, questions are being asked about how to measure excellence and about whether or not lecturers are supported in doing so. How can lecturers devise reliable measures for evaluating the quality of their teaching? The following piece conceptualises the relationship between education research and practice in HE through discussing the sustainable integration of education research into teaching practice. The overarching aim is to discuss the potential for a pedagogy centred on the development of action research in educator development programmes and thus gauge how sustainable such practices can be in HE.Corradini, E. (2020). Sustainable Practices in research-integrated Education in HE: towards an accepted Development Pedagogy. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):771-776. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11141OCS77177630-05-202

Editorial: Technology for higher education, adult learning and human performance

This special issue is dedicated to technology-enabled approaches for improving higher education, adult learning, and human performance. Improvement of learning and human development for sustainable development has been recognized as a key strategy for individuals, institutions, and organizations to strengthen their competitive advantages. It is crucial to help adult learners and knowledge workers to improve their self-directed and life-long learning capabilities. Meanwhile, advances in technology have been increasingly enabling and facilitating learning and knowledge-related initiatives. They have largely extended learning opportunities through the provision of resource-rich and learner-centered environment, computer-based learning support, and expanded social interactions and networks. Papers in this special issue are representative of ongoing research on integration of technology with learning for innovative and sustainable development in higher education institutions and organizational and community environments.published_or_final_versio

Curriculum transformation to address the Sustainable Development Goals: A holistic approach for embedding gender in higher education

[EN] To better prepare a new generation of practitioners and thought leaders to meet the complex challenges highlighted in the sustainable development goals (SDGs), innovation is needed in the design and delivery of degree programmes. Gender inclusion and diversity are increasingly recognised as key tenets of Education for Sustainable Development. Energy access education in Africa provides an excellent context in which to explore ways of delivering gender inclusive Masters programmes and the curriculum transformations needed to address the dual challenges of SDG7 (energy access) and SDG 5 (gender equality). This paper explores the evolving context of gender mainstreaming in energy access education at Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) in Africa, drawing on a desktop study and interviews with 8 African Universities in the Transforming Energy Access Learning Partnership (TEA-LP). The paper calls for the adoption of a more holistic approach to mainstreaming gender in energy access education at IHLs, encompassing curriculum content, teaching methods, learning environments and the broader institutional enabling environment.This research was funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Transforming Energy Access Programme, IATI Identifier: GB-1-204867. This paper benefited from the advice and support of Guy Cunliffe and Leslie Ashburner from the TEALP. The authors are grateful for their feedback.Pailman, W.; De Groot, J. (2021). Curriculum transformation to address the Sustainable Development Goals: A holistic approach for embedding gender in higher education. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 119-127. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.12977OCS11912

Sustainability and Communication in Higher Education

[EN] Sustainability Sciences need communication to communicate knowledge effectively and to engage audiences toward sustainable development. Therefore, the present study examines to what extent media and communication aspects are integrated into sustainability science's curricula of higher education institutions in Europe. For this purpose, a total of n=1117 bachelor and master's degree programs and their related curricula/program specifications from 31 European countries were analyzed by means of content analysis. Results show that the level of curricular integration of media and communication aspects in the field of sustainability science is not (yet) far advanced (18%). This leaves room for a reflection on the perceived (ir-)relevance of communication as a crucial discipline and competence in the sustainability science area, as well as on the social and educational responsibility of higher education institutions.Voci, D.; Karmasin, M. (2021). Sustainability and Communication in Higher Education. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 641-649. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.12831OCS64164

International Collaboration on a Sustainable Forestry Management OER Online Program – A Case Study

[EN] Over time, forest education has had to adapt to keep up with global changes and to accomodate the needs of students and society. While facing pressing global issues like climate change, deforestation, illegal logging and food security, the role of higher forest education has shifted away from traditional teaching approaches and practices to methods that emphasize sustainable development, community-based management and environmental conservation in forestry. In doing so, forest education has cultivated human expertise that understands the complexity of ever-changing environments, masters state of the art technologies to manage fores and natural resources, and is capable of creating, communicating and implementing related policies in global communities and societies. In this context, educational technology and online lerning enable flexible, accessible, effective, and high-quality forest education. A case study of a Sustainable Forest Management Online program led by the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia (UBC) shows that appropriately integrating educational technologies into an interntionally developed and recognized high quality curriculum is an effective way to create accessible and affordable forest education in meeting the demand of evolving societal and environmental conditions.Keywords: forest education; educational technology; international collaboration, open educational resourcesThis paper is based on studies conducted along with the delivery of a series of online courses in sustainable forest management supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management (APFNet) and the Asia Pacific Forestry Education Coordination Mechanism (AP-FECM).Zeng, MQ(.; Chen, H.; Shrestha, A.; Crowley, C.; Ng, E.; Wang, G. (2020). International Collaboration on a Sustainable Forestry Management OER Online Program – A Case Study. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):1253-1260. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.112421253126030-05-202

A self-evaluation tool of sustainability concepts in higher education institutions courses

[EN] In this paper, a self-evaluation tool is developed to allow educators and Higher Education Institutions to assess their efforts in pursuing Education for Sustainable Development. The composite index here proposed allows the individual components that contribute to the pursuit of sustainability in education to be grasped in isolation and, at the same time, provides an overall evaluation measure of all the elements taken into consideration. The index is based on the identification of elements that measure the efficiency of the allocated expenditure. At the same time, it encompasses measures of the impact and perception of sustainability concept by staff and students. Albeit in a laborious way, the application of the tool leads to an unbiased assessment of education for sustainable development results. This composite indicator can be used in a replicative manner elsewhere and offers the advantage of being able to carry out comparative evaluative analyses. This is due to its adaptive flexibility.The study is part of EFFORT (EFFectiveness Of Responsible Teaching), a project (partially) funded by the Erasmus+ grant program of the European Union under grant no. 2019-1-DE01-KA203-005057. Neither the European Commission nor the project´s national funding agency DAAD are responsible for the content or liable for any losses or damage resulting of the use of these resources. We are grateful to the members of EFFORT team for their precious suggestions and insights while developing the paper.Venezia, E.; Pizzutilo, F. (2021). A self-evaluation tool of sustainability concepts in higher education institutions courses. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 669-677. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.13055OCS66967

Learning sustainability by making games. The experience of a challenge as a novel approach for Education for Sustainable Development

[EN] Nowadays, the programs of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are designed for changing attitudes on environmental, economic, and social dimensions. In this context, and considering the varied ages of the participating students, it is necessary to implement appropriate pedagogical methods that are generally different from the traditional ones. Among the available approaches, Sustainability serious games (SSGs) appear to be an ideal candidate to facilitate ESD providing students with opportunities to experience the complex issues of sustainability. Besides learning by playing SSG, another relevant opportunity, capable of engaging teachers and students into a relevant and meaningful learning context, is learning by making SSGs, capable of engaging teachers and students into a relevant and meaningful learning context. In light of these comments, this paper proposes a major contribution to the research on learning by making games through a detailed discussion of the results obtained during a University Challenge experience, where students were involved in the design and development of SSGs. The Challenge involved 59 higher education (HE) students who were asked to work in groups to create a (per-group) prototype of a SSG aimed at improving the sustainability of our campus. Results of the Challenge assessment show that this learning approach can indeed be considered a valuable alternative for ESD.Cravero, S.; Strada, F.; Lami, I.; Bottino, A. (2021). Learning sustainability by making games. The experience of a challenge as a novel approach for Education for Sustainable Development. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 651-659. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.13192OCS65165

Education for Sustainable Development: a Strategic Tool for Quality Improvement of Higher Education

[EN] It has been long known that quality assurance (QA) is a system to develop quality standards in Thailand. However, it is not easy to implement the concept throughout a whole organization, for example, to include in a university, faculty members, program specifications, management team, and so on. This paper is to explain a case of strategic management of quality assurance using education for sustainable development (ESD) in the university with social enterprise concept. An example of the university with the mission statement of “to serve society” can drawn more attention using ESD concept to faculty in stead of QA regulation concept. The conceptual framework of the implementation was shown how QA can be developed in curriculum embedding with an ESD concept.Wongpreedee, K.; Sinsahuang, K.; Intanakom, J.; Tanechpongtamb, W.; Phansuwan-Pujito, P. (2016). Education for Sustainable Development: a Strategic Tool for Quality Improvement of Higher Education. En 2nd. International conference on higher education advances (HEAD'16). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 334-340. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD16.2015.2740OCS33434

Advancing understandings on Students’ Mobility as a Tool to reach 2030 Agenda

[EN] This paper interrogates the role of students’ mobility within the framework of 2030 Agenda, specifically, the prospects of reaching Sustainable Development Goal 4, a quality education for all by 2030. Empirical data draw upon a report that analyzes mobility’s figures over the last five academic years at the University of Évora, Portugal. Important insight can be gained from 2030 Agenda when looking at the strong imbalance observed between IN and OUT mobility, countries of origin and destination, gender and age distribution of the students’ missions. The paper claims for a call for action in order to use academic mobility as a tool to meet the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While academic mobility can and should be understood as part of a broader strategy aiming the dissemination and internationalization of knowledge and skills, acquisition and transfer of good practices, it should not neglect a commitment that through SDGs unites us all: to reduce inequalities and to improve the quality of life among individuals around the world.Costa, R. (2020). Advancing understandings on Students’ Mobility as a Tool to reach 2030 Agenda. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):1201-1208. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11235OCS1201120830-05-202