Linking research education and education for sustainable development via projects

Published ArticleOne of the main tasks of universities is to prepare students for an academic or professional career, and to make them responsible members of society by giving them the motivation and skills to create a better future. Education for Sustainable Development is a core feature of education in a university of the 21th century and in society. In a university, it has two aspects: firstly, to educate students and to help future academics to contribute to sustainable development, secondly, to contribute to sustainability and to spread education for sustainable development in the community. We consider examples of successful cooperation between the university and its stakeholders via projects that are relevant for education for sustainable development. We analyse the success factors and the educational and sustainability impacts of these projects

Academic and professional pedagogy : a conceptual perspective

Published ArticleThis paper examines the discourses on technical vocation education and training (TVET) adopting a comparative perspective. In particular, we critically analyse the notion of academic and professional pedagogy to embed curriculum and pedagogy at Universities of Technology (UoTs) in South Africa and at the Central University of Technology (CUT). This is conducted by analysing the term, vocational pedagogy within the context of Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) and Universities of Technology (UT) in Germany, and Universities of Technology (UoTs) in South Africa, respectively. We then proceed by exploring the idea of an Institute of Pedagogy at the Central University of Technology (CUT) that will become a centre of excellence where research on professional pedagogy will be undertaken by staff and students from CUT and other institutions, as well as other bodies, including government and the employer/industry

Sustainable development and product development - friend or foe?

Published ArticleSustainable development is the key issue for enabling the survival of human culture. Product development is sometimes seen as conflicting with the aims of sustainable development. This comes from a twofold impact: the production of new goods exploits scarce resources, and their use creates additional resource consumption and potential disparity. However, innovation and product development are important means to fulfil the needs of present and future generations and to achieve sustainable development. In this context, we must also consider the development of service products - classical services and product - related ones creating surplus value from physical products. The contribution of product development to sustainability will depend on the way sustainability issues are integrated into the development process. An important focus is on the early phases of product development and especially on the process of requirements analysis since this integrates all sustainability role players as potential stakeholders