The UE4SD Consortium of 52 partners from 33 countries across Europe is seeking to re-orient the higher education curriculum to address sustainable development. The 3 year-project, will focus on support for teaching colleagues, to enable them to prepare students, regardless of their courses or specialisation, to understand and apply their professional and global responsibilities in sustainability. The project includes plans for university staff to develop professional competences and the academic leadership capabilities linked to Education for Sustainable Development.
UE4SD seeks to establish a leading expert group in Education for Sustainable Development in higher education in Europe and will create a platform to combine and share the expertise of network partners so that they can inform policy and practice well beyond the life of the project. Its activities are closely associated with COPERNICUS Alliance – the European Network of Higher Education for Sustainable Development.
Why Education for Sustainable Development?
Sustainable development has been identified as one of the greatest challenges that our societies are facing in the 21st century. Unsustainable practices are increasing social, economic and environmental inequalities; worsening the impact of environmental degradation; and limiting quality of life. It has been recognised that our education systems are critical to achieve sustainable development goals as they equip learners with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to re-orient social structures and systems.
The UE4SD project has been created to specifically support teaching and learning for sustainability at the higher education level. The HE sector is critically positioned to address sustainable development as it prepares the future generation of professionals, challenges dominant paradigms and produces groundbreaking research. However, there is evidence suggesting that re-orienting the higher education curriculum towards sustainable development still needs guidance and support, if universities are to contribute to a more sustainable future.
UE4SD is funded by the European Commission under the Life Long Learning Programme – Erasmus Academic Networks. It commenced in October 2013 and will be involving 52 partners in 33 countries (see map) during its three year duration. As a lead partner, the University of Gloucestershire (UK – North Hub), works very closely with three core partners: Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain – South Hub); Charles University (Czech Republic – East Hub); Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany, West Hub).