Since 2004 the University of the Basque Country (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea), through the UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Development and Environmental Education, offers to the entire university community a range of awareness and teaching activities in sustainability.
These activities include seminars, courses, conferences and a postgraduate degree not to only to increase awareness in knowledge but also in motivation, attitude and values in order to confront and give a solution to the existing sustainability problems.
After the signing of a cooperation agreement between the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in 2004 the UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Development and Environmental Education was created with the aim to promote applied research, teaching, and specialized studies in Sustainable Development and Environmental Education; all this from an interdisciplinary view, taking into account natural, social and technical sciences.
Concerning awareness and training, since December 2004, the Chair has offered to the entire university community four workshops conferences responding, among other things, the demand from the teachers regarding information about the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), and the general interest to learn about practical cases of universities applying sustainability on their campuses. In training: two complementary courses have been offered "Sustainable development: putting thought into practice", recognized with 6 and 10 credits respectively, also a conference series "Sustainable development, a global vision", and in this year is already scheduled the second edition of the postgraduate degree of the UPV/EHU "Expert in Environment and Sustainability", recognized with 30 ECTs. In addition, to reinforce these areas of awareness and training, the Chair publishes annually the research magazine "FORUM Sustainability" and a catalogue that gathers the results of research projects in sustainability previously approved in their annual call for applied research funds.
Get into the sustainability. Make the university community familiar with the basic concepts of sustainability from a multidisciplinary view: social, economic, cultural, environmental...
Increasing public awareness and educate the university community on the issues of sustainability.
Promote good examples and practices to generate ideas and projects.
To engage the whole university community in the construction of a sustainable university.
Form and train coming generations citizens that can face the sustainability problems.
Construct new habits (energy saving, responsible consumption, ...), a new frame of mind, acquiring commitments, values for more sustainable lifestyle.
In training: two complementary courses have been offered "Sustainable development: putting thought into practice", recognized with 6 and 10 credits respectively, also a conference series "Sustainable development, a global vision", and in this year is already scheduled the second edition of the postgraduate degree of the UPV/EHU "Expert in Environment and Sustainability", recognized with 30 ECTs.
Nowadays the UPV/EHU has a community, integrated by students, professors and people from the administrative and service staff, aware and actively participating in all the activities related to the inclusion of the sustainability in the university curricula, as well as reviewing the physical operations of the university to reflect best sustainable development practices.
At the end of the course the students of the first edition of the postgraduate degree promised to keep the commitments made during the first classes in favour of a more sustainable lifestyle and to develop their careers and professional practices in compliance with sustainability criteria.
Multidisciplinary point of view of the sustainability concept.
Commitment from the participants of the activities in acquiring more sustainable lifestyles.
Possibility of implementing the knowledge acquired.
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