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Project

The role of competences for sustainable development in higher education: implications for curriculum, research competences and policy development.

Universities and other higher education institutions are paying considerable attention to the integration of sustainable development within their core functions: education, research, outreach and campus operations. Within education, the focus is set on competences for sustainable development, necessary to enable students to cope with the complexity and uncertainty of sustainability issues in society. These competences are defined in numerous projects and publications, and usually comprise elements of systems thinking, future thinking (or anticipatory competence), interpersonal competence, normative competence and strategic competence. The integration of these competences requires specific conditions in the curriculum, one of which is the role of research competences and their possible contribution towards acquiring competences for sustainable development. Other specific conditions are oriented towards policy development and assessment of higher education study programs. This doctoral project has a threefold ambition: (1) analyse the definition and integration of competences for sustainable development in higher education curricula; (2) explore the interrelations between competences for sustainable development and research competences; (3) analyse the implications of the integration of these competences for policy development in higher education, with specific focus towards sustainability assessment and change management approach
Date:1 Sep 2015 →  31 Aug 2016
Keywords:HIGHER EDUCATION
Disciplines:Education curriculum, Education systems, General pedagogical and educational sciences, Specialist studies in education, Other pedagogical and educational sciences