Curriculum

Introduction

One of the primary functions of colleges and universities is to educate students. By training and educating future leaders, scholars, workers, and professionals; higher education institutions are uniquely positioned to understand and address sustainability challenges. Institutions that offer courses covering sustainability issues help equip their students to lead society to a sustainable future.

7980 resources

Towards Sustainable Development through Higher Education Quality Assurance

  • Quality Assurance Agency For Higher Education (--None--)
  • Dnipro University of Technology

This study aims to identify the role of higher education quality assurance in achieving sustainable development goals. To support this aim, the following objectives were formulated: to discuss and summarize ...


Discovering Sustainability in New York City: An Interdisciplinary Framework for Teaching in Urban Institutions

  • Empire State College (NY)

Ecological learning is enriched when students can apply course content to their own communities and gain an understanding and experience for deploying sustainable practices. Such merging of content, application, and ...


Reflections and reflective practice to advance responsible management education for sustainability: the case of an Australian MBA programme

  • Griffith University (Queensland)

This paper aims to explore Master of Business Administration (MBA) students’ “reflections” and/or “reflection on practice” of sustainability into responsible management education using Bain et al.’s (2002) 5Rs ...


Exploring environmental sustainability of academia as a working space

  • Indiana University Bloomington (IN)
  • Robert Gordon University

This study aims to examine the organizational citizenship behaviors toward the environment among US-based faculty members, in social sciences, natural sciences, the humanities and engineering. Potential barriers that may stop ...


A self-assessment tool for social responsibility in higher education. Reporting on a national policy development process in Portugal

  • Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra (Coimbra)

Providing higher education institutions (HEIs) with a tool for self-assessing their social responsibility (SR) that generates the information and knowledge necessary to a strategic approach to adopting the Green Paper ...


Campus sustainability in an entrepreneurial framework

  • Iona College (NY)

The authors test their environmental entrepreneurship framework using a Trash-to-Treasure experiential learning activity. The authors observed student entrepreneurs coordinate entrepreneurial efforts in a real-life context and collaborate with stakeholders across ...


Are the sustainability-oriented skills and competencies of business graduates meeting or missing employers’ needs? Perspectives of regional employers

  • James Cook University (Queensland)

In the Anthropocene, universities play a role in developing students’ sustainability literacy and capacity to solve socio-ecological challenges. The objective of this study is to identify the generic and sustainability-oriented ...


Kicking the Habit: Rethinking Academic Hypermobility in the Anthropocene

  • Loyola University Chicago (IL)

Examining the hypermobility of many “elite” academic workers, this article situates mobility within the context of higher education and sustainability, decoloniality, and institutionalized expectations for academic travel. The mobility of ...


Promoting sustainability education through hands-on approaches: a tree carbon sequestration exercise in a Singapore green space

  • National University of Singapore
  • Maejo University

During a university class project related to climate change mitigation strategies, we utilized a university green space as a “living laboratory” for collaborative learning exercise to estimate landscape-level carbon biomass ...


(Un)Subjugating Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Development

  • Rowan University (NJ)
  • Nottingham Trent University

The relationship between development and higher education has evolved to become co-generative. The most recent incarnation of development goals, the sustainable development goals (SDG) call for a more intentional integration ...


Sustainable management education: insights from indigenous wisdom of Bhartiya (Indian) Gurukul philosophy

  • OP Jindal Global University (Haryana)

The purpose of the paper is to highlight the phenomenon of sustainable management education and its facilitating factors by exploring the indigenous wisdom of Bhartiya (Indian) Gurukul philosophy. The paper ...


Investigating undergraduate student learning experiences using the good practice learning and teaching for sustainability education (GPLTSE) framework

  • RMIT University

Sustainability curriculum in higher education is a crucial lever for building capabilities and knowledge for graduates to address the interconnected social, ecological and economic challenges of the 21st century in ...


Social Work and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Student Placement Model

  • RMIT University

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a blueprint to address urgent global challenges, with a clear role for social workers. This paper explores a Sustainable Development Goal’s ...


Engaging students in redesigning a local urban space to improve ecosystem services

  • Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)

Ecosystem services are an important, but often invisible component of the urban landscape. Humans have altered the environment in cities, leading to degraded or missing ecosystem services in many cases ...


‘Don’t Say It’s Going to Be Okay’: How International Educators Embrace Transformative Education to Support Their Students Navigating Our Global Climate Emergency

  • San Francisco State University (CA)
  • State University of New York at Cortland (NY)

Many education professionals are looking to Environmental and Sustainability Education as a guide to incorporate curricular lessons and activities into school classrooms and other learning environments. Building upon the framework ...


Multilevel barrier and driver analysis to improve sustainability implementation strategies: Towards sustainable operations in institutions of higher education

  • United Nations University
  • Technische Universität Dresden (Dresden)

In practice what they preach in research and education, higher education institutions (HEIs) must consider economic, ecological, and social impacts in their quest for sustainable operations. We contribute to the ...


Enhancing Student Learning of Global Warming Through Reflective Writing

  • Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TX)
  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX)

The National Academy of Science has published studies showing strong scientific evidence that global warming is caused by human consumption of fossil fuels,1 yet recent surveys have shown young ...


Exploring the utilisation of theoretical basis in existing campus sustainability appraisal tools

  • The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

A theoretical perspective is a key in the categorisation, structuring, interpretation of methodological research findings, and explanation of campus sustainability studies. A comprehensive review of existing campus sustainability appraisal tools ...


Assessing climate solutions and taking climate leadership: how can universities prepare their students for challenging times?

  • Trent University (ON)

Through this point-of-departure paper we aim to prompt discussion and action around redesigning university learning to help students tackle climate-related challenges in a personally and societally meaningful way. We use ...


Preparedness of higher education institutions for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4: the case of Nepalese universities

  • Tribhuvan University of Nepal

The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality of education, research, and governance of Nepalese higher education institutions (HEIs) as a supplement to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 ...


Methodological approach for the construction of environmental management indicators in universities

  • Universidad Central de Venezuela

Universities have become interested in environmental management. In them, there are problems of inadequate residues and waste management; high energy consumption and demand; water and air pollution; impacts on biodiversity ...


Music as a Tool for Promoting Environmental Awareness. Experiences of Undergraduate Education Students on the Production of Video Tales in the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Universidad de Salamanca
  • Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha

This paper elaborates on the didactic implementation of musical theater with undergraduate education students. Students had to select, prepare, justify, design, elaborate, rehearse, stage, and record an educational tale that ...


Training of communities of sustainability practice through science and art

  • Universidad de Guanajuato

This paper aims to analyse the university experience of a social laboratory that mixes science and art to instruct communities of sustainability practice in heterogeneous contexts through interpretive audio-visual ethnography ...


Sustainability in Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

  • University of Tasmania (TAS)
  • Universidad de Murcia (Murcia)

The COVID-19 pandemic has created cause for rapid innovation in, reimagining of, and pivoting of higher education institutions. Prior to 2020, the global higher education sector began to radically focus ...


From environmental education to education for sustainable development in higher education: a systematic review

  • Universidad de Salamanca

In education concerning environmental issues, there are two predominant currents in the world, environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD). ESD is the formal commitment and therefore promoted ...


A literature review on the strategies implemented by higher education institutions from 2010 to 2020 to foster pro-environmental behavior of students

  • Università degli Studi di Udine

Changing the present behavior of individuals toward a more sustainable lifestyle is a complex task requiring a well-established strategy and institutional commitment. The purpose of this paper is to understand ...


Planning to overcome perceived barriers: environmental and sustainability education, inclusion, and accessibility

  • Université de Saint-Boniface (MB)

Integrating environmental and sustainability education (ESE) approaches into faculty of education classrooms that are inclusive of learners with a broad range of diverse needs can seem daunting. Our purpose is ...


Sustainability teaching using case-based debates

  • University of Amsterdam

Given today’s pressing societal challenges, business schools are increasingly expected to incorporate sustainability in their curricula. Yet, while research on corporate sustainability is on the rise, there is less ...


On the maturity of social responsibility and sustainability integration in higher education institutions: Descriptive criteria and conceptual framework

  • University of Bari Aldo Moro

This paper is intended to foster debate on the relevance of social responsibility (SR) and sustainability maturity integration in education for sustainable development goals to be fully achieved. Several contributions ...


Student Teachers' Change Agency in Education for Sustainable Development

  • University of Turku
  • University of Eastern Finland

Previous research shows that teachers are key players in supporting agency in the faceof the biggest global challenges of our time, such as climate change and pollution, asteachers educate societiesí ...


Factors influencing sustainable development integration in management education: An Empirical Assessment of management education institutions in India

  • GLA University
  • University of Lucknow

The popularity of the notion of sustainable development has increased immensely in today's fast-paced business environment. The public's awareness of various sustainability challenges around the world has also ...


A Survey of Environmental Attitudes and Knowledge of University Undergraduate Students for the Purpose of Faculty Development in Teaching and Learning for Sustainability

  • University of North Carolina, Pembroke (NC)

Because today's students will confront global climate change and its concomitant social and cultural disruption, it is vital that they graduate with ecological knowledge, environmental ethics, and civic skills ...


Teaching slow fashion: an inquiry-based pedagogical approach

  • SUNY Buffalo State (NY)
  • University of North Texas (TX)

There is a growing recognition for the need to integrate slow fashion concepts within the fashion curriculum. Slow fashion is a dimension of sustainability gaining industry attention. This study explores ...


Major shift or business as usual? An investigation on the impacts of responsible management education

  • University of Shanghai for Science and Technology

Various curricula and educational materials for responsible management education (RME) have been developed by business schools from different parts of the world for sustainable development. There is, however, limited research ...


The usual discourse of sustainable development and its impact on students of economics: a case from Czech higher education context

  • University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

In recent decades, the concepts of sustainable development (SD) and sustainability have become a part of the everyday information flow. Is there real impact on students who have potential to ...


Place-responsive Pedagogies in the Anthropocene: attuning with the more-than-human

  • The Mind Lab
  • University of Stirling (Scotland)

Drawing on New Materialist frameworks for environmental and sustainability education, we extend and deepen our understanding of contemporary place-responsive pedagogies in the light of our human-impacted geological epoch, the Anthropocene ...


Integration of environmental sustainability considerations within architectural programmes in higher education: A review of teaching and implementation approaches

  • University of Texas at San Antonio (TX)
  • University of Auckland

As education providers, universities play a pivotal role in developing and delivering quality education that contributes to the achievement of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and the related “Sustainable ...


Teaching ecosystem services: a pathway to improve students’ argumentation in favour of nature conservation and sustainable development?

  • University of the Basque Country

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits people obtain from nature contributing to our well-being. Although this concept has high didactic potential, its presence in education literature is scarce. This article ...


Learning towards environmental sustainability practices: insights from a values-based participatory research approach

  • University of the Free State
  • Fudan University

Transformative Learning Theory is instrumental in fostering sustained positive change in adult learners as it explains how critical reflection in crystallization processes results in emancipatory learning. Despite its relevance, there ...


From tensions to transformation: Teaching food systems in a graduate dietetics course

  • University of Toronto (ON)

Dietitians are deeply embedded within food systems, so food systems concepts are becoming an essential component of dietetic education in Canada. Yet how can we, as educators, better prepare future ...


Investigating critical community engaged pedagogies for transformative environmental justice education

  • University of Utah (UT)

Effective environmental justice education poses unique challenges to both educators and students. For students, this pursuit is cognitively challenging at best and emotionally paralyzing at worst. It requires deconstruction of ...


Enhancing sustainability education in the accounting curriculum: an effective learning strategy

  • University of Waikato

This paper aims to examine the embedding of sustainability courses in the accounting curriculum by using the Delta Business School in New Zealand as an example. The focus of this ...


If It Is Life We Want: A Prayer for the Future (of the) University

  • Antioch University, New England (NH)
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)
  • University of York

Universities are one potentially important place – albeit not the only one – to initiate the next generation into becoming the adult humans needed to navigate the difficult future of the Anthropocene ...


Dealing with the Intangible: Using the Analytical Lens of Hidden Curricula for a Transformative Paradigm of Sustainable Higher Education

  • Vienna University of Economics and Business

There is a broad consensus that universities have the potential to act as drivers of education for sustainable development (ESD) and constitute fundamental vehicles to explore, test, develop and communicate ...


Sustainability at Universities as a Determinant of Entrepreneurship for Sustainability

  • Universitatea din București
  • Woosong University

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of universities in promoting sustainability and sustainable development goals among Indian students as future entrepreneurs, supporting the mission of sustainability ...


Architectural Education in the Current of Deep Ecology and Sustainability

  • Wrocław University of Science and Technology

As a result of the experience and scientific research of the authors on the deep ecology and sustainability process, academic courses were created that are run at two stages of ...


Education for sustainable development with transdisciplinary-oriented courses - experiences and recommendations for future collaborations in higher education teaching

  • Wuppertal Institut

The paper investigates how teacher trainees in higher education geography and external, non-scientific partners perceive and experience collaborations in an active teaching and learning approach. Such formats are recommended in ...


The contribution of sustainability education pedagogies to the development of Greek preservice teachers’ sustainability consciousness about social issues in urban environments

  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Kentriki Makedonia)

This study explores the role of specific sustainability education pedagogies in developing preservice teachers’ sustainability consciousness (SC). The participants were 77 Greek preservice teachers from a Department of Primary Education ...


Engaging Students in the Development of an Atmospheric Science Course: A Discourse Analysis

  • Beijing Normal University

Aims:

With increasing emphasis on learners-centered approach in teaching and learning, engaging students in course development and refinement is crucial. This study aims to foster a participatory approach in course ...


Climate change concern among youth: Examining the role of civics and institutional trust across 22 countries

  • Columbia University (NY)

Although scholars have long documented perceptions of climate change and the public’s evolving response to the perceived risk it poses, only more recently have these analyses begun to examine ...

This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.

All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.

AC 1: Academic Courses

AC 2: Learning Outcomes

AC 3: Undergraduate Program

AC 4: Graduate Program

AC 5: Immersive Experience

AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses

AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

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