Shaping young people’s critical thinking, perspectives on life and skills to take action, are maybe the most important tasks of today’s universities. Adapting the way we organise our education to today’s complex societal challenges and wicked problems – from climate change to poverty – is thus an imperative.
Under the umbrella of ‘sustainability education’, a thriving literature has already developed sets of pedagogical and competency frameworks e.g. SDG’s, Wiek and Rieckmann that are widely accepted and ready for use. We can find the crystallisation of this in the online teacher training on sustainability (in Dutch) developed by the Flemish government in collaboration with all Flemish universities, including UAntwerp. This training course focuses on introducing sustainability competences and democratic and participatory learning processes in higher education.
Goals
In the newly developed university wide vision ‘Sustainability in Education’, four goals are put forward:
1. UAntwerp prepares students for future social challenges in a rapidly changing world where graduates have ethical, socially responsible and sustainable behavior as a basic characteristic. We do this by sharpening the ethical and sustainability awareness of our students throughout each programme.
2. UAntwerp equips students with the necessary sustainability competences to work on both current and future societal challenges. Hereby focusing on a mix of knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable students to look for sustainable answers to complex sustainability challenges themselves.
3. UAntwerp encourages students, lecturers and other staff involved in education to develop themselves on a personal and professional level to become change agents who, as creative, active and critical citizens, contribute maximally to the transition to an inclusive, just and sustainable society.
4. The University of Antwerp encourages knowledge development and sharing of sustainability education among university employees (ZAP, AAP, BAP and ATP). Sustainability education will then not only be treated as a theoretical concept but also translated into concrete actions that all employees can undertake in their daily work and through which a sustainability culture can be fostered within the university.
Milestones reached
Interdisciplinary education has a strong tradition at UAntwerp in the form of bachelor, master and postgraduate study programmes (Master of Environmental Sciences, Bachelor and Master of SocioEconomic Sciences, Masters of Development Studies, Postgraduate of Climate and Energy, Summer school, etc.). This is partly due to the high engagement of individual researchers and research groups, leading to a good offer on sustainability-related education. Further progress has been made by offering university-wide interdisciplinary courses (Dutch: korfvakken) as electives in the third year of the bachelor's programs. Nevertheless, our university lacked a clear university-wide vision and strategy forimplementing sustainability in education. This has resulted in a fragmented landscape of initiatives and actions with many blind spots and a lack of a clear overview and visibility. Nevertheless, an overview of some initiatives is listed below.
- To overcome this fragmentation and identify blind spots, a formal Working Group on Sustainability, Climate and Education has been initiated under the auspices of the Education Council and with the Vice-Rector for Education as chair. The first achievement of this brandnew Working Group was the development of a university wide vision ‘Sustainability in Education’.
- The development and launch of the new Master of Bioscience Engineering: Sustainable Urban Bioscience Engineering with a strong focus on interdisciplinarity. - Several faculties, Social Sciences, Law, Design Sciences and Business and Economics are establishing committees that have sustainability (in education) as one of their focus areas.
- An interdisciplinary Project Day supported by funding from “Voorsprongfonds” is being organised
.- In collaboration with ECHO and the Educatiepunt Duurzaam Hoger Onderwijs Vlaanderen, workshops and peer-to-peer learning sessions on integrating sustainability competences in education for CIKO staff and lecturers were organised. Further outreach based on an online learning module looks promising. Past initiatives from ECHO can be reviewed here. Additionally, Training sessions for assistants have been implemented.
- In 2019, a brochure highlighting Good Practices in Sustainability Education at UAntwerp was published. The 2019 and 2021 Education Policy Days organised by the Education Department dedicated significant sessions to sustainability competences and good practices in education.
Work in progress
- The development of an interuniversity Master of Transitions Towards Sustainability and Socio Ecological Justice in the Faculty of Social Sciences.
- The development of the YUFE-bachelor of Urban Sustainability Studies.
- The interdisciplinary project day to which more and more faculties are contributing.
- The development of a Maker Space within the Faculty of Design Sciences. - The concept note with regard to the establishment of an UAntwerp living lab or city academy (Stadsacademie) has been drafted and the idea is discussed in relevant fora.
- Several initiatives were undertaken during the Antwerp Summer University to createinnovative university-wide, interdisciplinary courses on sustainability topics.
- The introduction of a sustainability master lab in a master's thesis was requested through VLAIO.
Planned actions
Below you can find two categories of actions:
o actions that have not yet been achieved in the previous period but will be retaken.
o actions for new or recurring initiatives.
Actions not yet achieved
- Organise a student survey to gather their views and perspectives on sustainability in their university education.
- A structural funding stream for problem-based and interdisciplinary education projects that stimulate new pilots, improved interfaculty cooperation or strengthen existing initiatives does not currently exist.
New (or recurring) actions
3.1. Initiate a Thematic University Wide Analysis with regard to sustainability and education. A first university-wide thematic analysis within the framework of quality assurance is currently being conducted, focusing on internationalisation. The subsequent analysis, scheduled to commence in 2024for implementation in 2025, will center on sustainability and education. In preparation to the university-wide analysis, collect data on sustainability education that are available in the central education administration.In anticipation ofthe university-wide analysis, organize a meeting with representatives from all facultiesto discuss data collection. The meeting must help to provide an overview of already existing data on sustainability competences in curricula and to develop a strategy for enhancing data collection.
3.2. Organise an in-depth student survey for input for the thematic university-wide analysis in collaboration with EduBron on their views and perspectives on sustainability in university education. A good example from UGent.
3.3. Set up facilities and acquire or provide support for faculties and departments to outline and review the sustainability competences present in their curricula. For Financial support, we have “UAntwerpen Fonds voor OnderwijsOntwikkeling”, abbreviated as UFOO-Funding. Excellent examples of such processes can be found here and here.Under the auspices of the Commission Sustainable Higher Education of the Flemish Government a working group has been established to review curricula. It is crucial to diligently monitor the progress of the initiatives and discussions within this working group.Under the auspices of the Commission for Sustainable Higher Education of the Flemish Government, a working group has been formed to review curricula. It is crucial to diligently monitor the progress of initiatives and discussions within this working group.
3.4. Integrate two extra questions about sustainability in the existing three-yearly programme evaluation to have complementary information in time.
3.5. Outline staff expertise and research projects, as well as sustainability competences in programme components.State of play: The earlier attempt at creating an outline in 2014 undertaken by the Education Department proved that it is difficult to create an up-to-date and detailed outline of sustainability competences in study programmes.
3.6. Support interfaculty initiativesA structural funding stream is needed to support problem-based and interdisciplinary education projects. This funding should stimulate new pilots, improve interfaculty cooperation or strengthen existing initiatives.
3.7. Open up access to interdisciplinary courses for all students. Give an overview of existing online courses on sustainability e.g. MOOCs.
3.8. All faculties develop a core competences framework integrating sustainability competences.
3.9. Ensure an offer of workshops and peer-to-peer learning sessions university-wide, across faculties, aimed at integrating sustainability competences into education for CIKO staff and lecturers. This initiative aims to create a learning network on sustainability education within UAntwerp.3.10. Increase the visibility of successfully incorporating sustainability and interdisciplinarity in education.
3.10. Highlight aspect of sustainability and climate change in education on the annual EducationPolicy Day.
3.11. Explore the possibility to set up a UAntwerp sustainability living lab or city academy (Stadsacademie)The living lab connects to existing initiatives such as Community Service Learning (CSL) or the Antwerp Science Shop (Wetenschapswinkel). The Maker Space that is being developed within the Faculty of Design Sciences in collaboration with Steunpunt Duurzaam Educatiepunt can serve as a source of inspiration/starting point to develop a university-wide initiative.
Indicators
The indicators allow us to track progress that is being made. They evaluate central policy initiatives and must support faculties to reach the defined objectives.
- A strong indicator of how the provision of sustainability in education is perceived can be found in the results of the programme evaluation (see action 3.4).
- Another strong indicator is the number of initiatives to encourage knowledge development and sharing of sustainability education among university employees (ZAP, AAP, BAP and ATP).
Challenges
Similar to research, one clear challenge for interdisciplinary education is the compartmentalised nature of the university in disciplinary departments and faculties which are often difficult to bridge. A strong vision and strategy on sustainability in education can be developed through an inclusive process involving discussions and strong support from UAntwerp’s management and Education Department, as well as from the faculties. Funding initiatives need to focus on the equitable distribution of resources.
A second challenge is the knowledge gap among lecturers who are not yet familiar with sustainability and the lack of context in which they can start learning to engage with sustainability education. A third challenge is the (temporal) staff capacity to launch and implement structured actions on this topic, given the ambitions of the new UAntwerp vision and objectives.