Sustainability

Academic Impact: Fresh Educational Principles for a New Millennium of Global Challenges
This article explains the Academic Impact initiative started by the United Nations. Along with the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005—2014, DESD), and the UN Millennium Development goals, Academic Impact assumes an active role of assuring ten universally accepted principles in...
Quality and the social responsibility of universities
In this article, Yazmín Cruz, GUNI project officer, states that quality cannot be an abstract, unimportant notion: it must be applied to a specific context and in relation to the relevance of an institution and its role in solving the problems faced by a community.
Higher Education contribution to the UN Millennium Development Goals
Several of the most pressing problems and challenges faced by humankind were identified in 2000 as Millennium Development Goals. World governments made a commitment to meet these goals by 2015. To what extent are these goals a subject of concern for higher education? Should higher education...
Grassroots Cross‐boundary Innovation in Higher Education: Lessons from the Process of Designing Transformative
The Initiative for Transformative Sustainability Education (ITSE) at Wageningen University is a grassroots working group of academics, teachers, and students who have developed a framework for cross‐boundary sustainability education that addresses theoretical knowledge and practical skills, but...
Initiating and Managing a University-wide, Transdisciplinary Commitment to Sustainability at a Large Public Institution
Arizona State University has a university-wide, transdisciplinary commitment to sustainability education, research, and outreach and business operations. All academic, administrative, business and support units are expected to participate in achieving its sustainability goals and are guided by the...
Teaching Teachers to teach Sustainability – A cross-disciplinary course for integrating ESD in Higher Education
On the order of the vice chancellor an in-service course on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for University Teachers has been developed. The basic aim of the course is to strengthen the university teachers´ competence to integrate Sustainable Development (SD) in their teaching. The...
Living and Learning Sustainability in Higher Education: A Research Study on Indicators of Social Learning
Higher education institutions not only provide research and policy in sustainability, but also create and facilitate environments for students and staff to develop their understanding and responses to sustainability. Sustainability learning opportunities in higher education are often thought to...
Study Programme Sustainable Development. A Cross-Cutting Agenda for Bachelor Students
The issue Sustainability is getting more relevant in many professional contexts, it diffuses into various societal systems and is integrated increasingly into several careers. To handle and permeating complex issues such as Sustainability, their associate uncertainties and be aware of interlinkages...
Ana Lucia Gazzola
In this interview, Ana Lúcia Gazzola, the former executive director of both INHOTIM and IESALC, reflects on the role of higher education in creating knowledge and eradicating economic and social inequalities. INHOTIM and IESALC (Instituto Internacional de la Unesco para la Educación Superior en...
Abdel Moneim Osman
In this interview, Abdel Moneim Osman, Director of the UNESCO Regional Bureau of Education in Arab States and Secretary of GUNI Arab States, reflects upon the challenges for higher education and UNESCO’s projects in the region. He also gives his vision on how higher education institutions can...
Carl Lindberg
In this interview, Carl Lindberg, Member of the UNESCO High-Level Panel on Education of Sustainable Development (ESD) and Special Advisor to the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO on ESD, reflects upon the role of higher education institutions in sustainable development and the importance to...
Young-Gil Kim
Young-Gil Kim, President of Handong Global University, which is hosting the UNITWIN Network on Capacity Building of Sustainable Development in Developing Countries, details the objectives and activities of the Network and reflects upon the contribution of higher education towards sustainable...
Manon Vaal
Manon Vaal has been promoting the growth of science shops both in the Netherlands and abroad. She talked about the role of science shops as intermediate organizations between society and science. Ms. Vaal also talked about the evolution that science shops have experienced since their appearance 30...
Heila Lotz-Sisitka
In this interview, Heila Lotz- Sisitka, Director of the Murray & Roberts Chair of Environmental Education and Sustainability at Rhodes University (South Africa) explains the different ways of understanding sustainable development in African universities.
Cecilia Lundholm
In this interview Cecilia Lundholm, from the Department of Education, Stockholm University & Stockholm Resilience Centre, explains that one of the goals of higher education is to help students to understand how society works and which is the toolkit that they can use to deal with the...
Walter Leal Filho
In this interview Walter Leal Filho, Senior Professor at London Metropolitan University, UK and head of the Research and Transfer Centre "Applications of Life Sciences" of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, explains that Education for Sustainability is about educating people to better...
Angélica Olvera
"We need an all-encompassing pedagogy" In this interview, Angélica Olvera, Academic and Educational Research Director for the CUDEC Group (Mexico) explains the concept of systemic pedagogy and its application to higher education.
Dzulkifli Razak
In this interview Dzulkifli Razak, Rector of the University Sains Malaysia explains that sustainability starts with a kind of mindset, and in this sense education becomes important, because is a place where we can start to do all those mindset changes
Paul Rowland
In this interview, Paul Rowland of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) explains the importance of increasingly including sustainability in higher education and the leading role that AASHE is taking on that regard
Tarah Wright
Tarah Wright discusses about the relevance of sustainability research, its advantages, limitations as well as the need to go beyond the ivory tower and find innovative and holistic ways to create awareness about sustainability among stakeholders. She is an associate professor of Environmental...