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.

118 resources

Implementing an Undergraduate Sustainability Requirement at the University of Iowa

  • University of Iowa (IA)

Join us to gain insight into how the University of Iowa was able to create and implement a campus-wide undergraduate course requirement for sustainability. This effort Began in the College ...

  • Posted Feb. 21, 2024
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The Contribution of Higher Education to Sustainability: The Development and Assessment of Sustainability Competences in a University Case Study

  • Imperial College London

Universities can make a significant contribution to sustainability, and the development of sustainability competences in their graduates should be a key outcome of their courses. We propose an assessment framework ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Cultivating students’ sustainability-oriented learning at the interface of science and society: a configuration of interrelated enablers

  • Wageningen University

Purpose: By envisioning the learning environment as an eco-social system, this study aims to map interrelated enablers of students’ sustainability-oriented learning (SoL) in the context of a university course at ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Assessing teacher training programs for the prevalence of sustainability in learning outcomes, learning content and didactic approaches

  • Kyoto University
  • University of Bayreuth
  • Vietnam National University, Hanoi
  • Hanoi National University of Education
  • University of Da Nang
  • National Academy of Education Management (Vietnam)

Reorienting teacher education should be placed at the heart of reorienting education towards sustainable development. This requires that teacher education institutes reorient and redefine their outcome standards as well as ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Assessing sustainability knowledge for undergraduate students in different academic programs and settings

  • California Polytechnic State University (CA)
  • University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (WI)

Purpose: As sustainability teaching and learning rises in importance, an increasing number of higher education institutions (HEIs) are assessing the effectiveness of their approach to sustainability education. However, most assessments ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Authentic assessment targeting sustainability outcomes: a case study exploring student perceptions

  • Victoria University of Wellington

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand student experiences of authentically assessed community partnership projects and reflect on authentic assessment from a social and environmental sustainability perspective. Design ...

  • Posted June 15, 2023
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Devise and Dismantle Racial Inequity through Inclusive Professional Learning and Course Design

  • Old Dominion University (VA)
  • San Diego Mesa College (CA)
  • AASHE (PA)

Diversity, equity, and Inclusion operations within higher education are critical to fostering an environment that dismantles structural racism and intentionally develops solutions to challenges faced by marginalized and non-marginalized populations ...

  • Posted March 3, 2023
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Meaning-making in higher education for sustainable development: undergraduates’ long-term processes of experiencing and learning

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

Despite the increase in teaching approaches designed to integrate sustainability into higher education, the connection between students’ learning experiences and their learning outcomes remains incompletely understood. The present multi-case study ...


The effect of social innovation education on sustainability learning outcomes: the roles of intrinsic learning motivation and prosocial motivation

  • Tianjin University

The purpose of this study is to reveal the influence mechanism of social innovation education (SIE) on sustainability learning outcomes and analyze the roles of intrinsic learning motivation and prosocial ...


Sustainability in engineering education: A review of learning outcomes

  • Monash University (VIC)

Although UNESCO and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals have articulated the critical role of engineering in achieving sustainable forms of development, there remains the need to analyze the design ...


Active learning as enabler of sustainability learning outcomes: Capturing the perceptions of learners during a materials education workshop

  • Imperial College London
  • Research Institutes of Sweden - RISE

Active learning is a promising teaching approach that can develop sustainability competences in learners. In this paper, we investigate the potential of active-learning pedagogies such as serious games and active-learning ...


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 ...


Approaches to Teaching Sustainability-Key Competencies

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)
  • University of Dayton (OH)
  • University of Hawaii System Office (HI)
  • Sustainability Curriculum Consortium (MD)

As courses and programs in sustainability continue to expand in higher education, instructors are called on to develop and adapt new and innovative approaches to teaching that enable students to ...

  • Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Engaging with Community Partners to Advance Sustainability Learning -- A New Affinity Group

  • Georgia Institute of Technology (GA)

Integrating Service-Learning/Community Engagement (SLCE) into Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) offers opportunities to enhance student learning outcomes and competencies across diverse disciplines. Research has demonstrated that service-learning can deepen ...

  • Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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Creating Sustainable Curriculum Processes for a Sustainability Outcome

  • Fleming College (ON)

In 2018, Ontario Colleges Quality Assurance Services (OCQAS) conducted an institutional level quality audit of Fleming College, Ontario, Canada. This audit involved a comprehensive review of the College's quality ...

  • Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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High Impact Low Carbon Exchanges: Teaching Sustainability Through Global Classroom Partnerships

  • Salisbury University (MD)
  • Universidad Latinoamericana De Ciencia Y Tecnología (ULACIT)

Studying abroad allows students from across the globe to experience different cultural, political, learning, and natural environments. For these reasons and many others, learning institutions (including universities) have prioritized this ...

  • Posted Jan. 21, 2022
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What's Missing? Reconsidering the Key Competencies in Sustainability Education

  • University of Dayton (OH)

This presentation looks at the core competencies shaping the curriculum in sustainability programs, and which may impact accreditation processes for those programs in the future. An overview of the various ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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What Story Does Your Curriculum Tell? Flipping the Script on Narratives of Sustainability

  • University of Michigan (MI)

If we think of the future as an unfinished story, we see two grand narratives unfolding: A shift towards sustainability and social justice tells a story about a better life ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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A Competency Framework for Sustainability Studies Program Development

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)

The presenter will discuss methods and findings from her recently published research on competencies for sustainability studies and related academic programs ('Competencies and Pedagogies for Sustainability Education: A Roadmap for ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Strengthening Sustainability Programs and Curricula at the Undergraduate and Graduate Levels

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)
  • University of Michigan (MI)
  • The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (DC)

Sustainability education is crucial to address urgent environmental, economic, and societal challenges. The number of undergraduate and graduate degree programs, research institutes, and centers focused on sustainability has markedly increased ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Institutional Implications on Promoting Education in Sustainability: Student Learning Outcome

  • California Polytechnic State University (CA)

California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (herein referred to Cal Poly), was awarded the silver STARS rating in 2017. In all evaluated categories, Cal Poly received lower scores ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Current Practice of Assessing Students' Sustainability Competencies

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

While there is growing agreement on the set of competencies sustainability professionals should possess as well as the pedagogies to develop them, the practice of assessing students' sustainability competencies is ...

  • Posted Nov. 15, 2021
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Integrating racial equity, social justice, and sustainability through general education learning outcome assessment

  • University of Utah (UT)

In 2014, the University of Utah administration received a poignant letter from a group of passionate students suggesting that granting an undergraduate degree to any student without ensuring that they ...


Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed‑upon reference framework

  • Furman University (SC)
  • Bellevue College (WA)
  • Northern Arizona University (AZ)
  • University of Hawaii at Manoa (HI)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg
  • University of Michigan (MI)
  • University of Vechta
  • University of Auckland
  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Chatham University (PA)
  • University of South Dakota (SD)
  • Université Laval (QC)
  • Rovira i Virgili University
  • UNESCO

Hundreds of sustainability programs have emerged at universities and colleges around the world over the past 2 decades. A prime question for employers, students, educators, and program administrators is what ...

  • Posted April 23, 2021
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Learning processes for interpersonal competence development in project-based sustainability courses – insights from a comparative international study

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

For professional sustainability work, graduates need to be able to work in teams and collaborate with stakeholders; in other words, they need to have developed interpersonal competence. There is growing ...

  • Posted Feb. 19, 2021
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Designing Effective Sustainability Assignments: How and Why Definitions of Sustainability Impact Assignments and Learning Outcomes

  • Quinnipiac University (CT)
  • University of Massachusetts Boston (MA)

The importance of, and interest in, sustainability in management education has increased significantly over the past three decades. However, the definition of sustainability remains complex and elusive, thus creating significant ...


What drives green experiential outcomes in tourism higher education?

  • National Sun Yat-sen University
  • The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • Ming Chuan University

This paper aims to explore the structural relationships between the dimensions of green experiential outcomes and their four drivers – green experiential learning, green experiential motivation, green experiential value and green ...


Health-Related Education for Sustainability: Public Health Workforce Needs and the Role of Higher Education

  • Deakin University
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)

Public health practitioners have important roles to play in addressing environmental sustainability imperatives that have an impact on human health. Yet, to date, the extent to which practitioners are willing ...


Exploring emerging learning needs: a UK-wide consultation on environmental sustainability learning objectives for medical education

  • University of Bristol
  • University College London (London)
  • University of Hull
  • Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (Oxford)

Objectives: This study aimed to engage wide-ranging stakeholders and develop consensus learning objectives for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

Methods: A UK-wide consultation garnered opinions of healthcare students, healthcare educators ...


Seeking impact of medical schools on health: meeting the challenges of social accountability

  • University of British Columbia (BC)

Context The acquisition of sums of knowledge and mastery of sophisticated technologies by medical graduates is insufficient for their responsibilities to recognise and adapt to people's evolving needs.

Response ...


A cohort study of sustainability education in nursing

  • University of Plymouth (Devon)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of scenario-based learning aimed at raising awareness of sustainability in health-care practitioners. The Lancet Countdown on Climate Change calls ...


Charting students’ exposure to promising practices of teaching about sustainability across the higher education curriculum

  • Columbia University (NY)
  • Michigan State University (MI)

Although policymakers have advocated for infusing sustainability throughout the higher education curriculum, we know little about how to teach students this complex subject matter. Therefore, using data from a sustainability ...


A framework for mapping sustainability within tertiary curriculum

  • UNSW Sydney (NSW)

Purpose Sustainability within tertiary curriculum is hard to measure and often perceived to be illusive in nature. Existing higher education sustainability assessment tools rarely focus on the curriculum. This paper ...


Exploring just sustainability across the disciplines at one university

  • State University of New York at Plattsburgh (NY)
  • University of Vermont (VT)

We examined The University of Vermont’s new sustainability requirement for undergraduates through the lens of just sustainability. We found that sustainability courses are proposed in diverse disciplines. Regardless of ...


Engineering education and the development of competencies for sustainability

  • Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
  • University of Campinas
  • Universidade Federal Fluminense

Purpose This paper aims to deal with the skills for sustainable development in engineering courses. The main objective is to identify which competences should be developed in these courses to ...


Designing and Assessing Learning Outcomes: A Framework for Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs

  • Portland State University (OR)

In recent years, Co-Curricular Sustainability Programs (CoCSPs) have been established at many higher education institutions. However, few such programs have developed learning outcomes or assessment processes to measure the types ...


The use of the theory of planned behaviour to assess graduate attributes for sustainability

  • RMIT University

Higher Education plays an influential role in societal transformation towards sustainability. An understanding of the application of sustainability learning from degree programs in a graduate’s professional practice can serve ...


Unity College Sustainability Science Curriculum

  • Unity Environmental University (ME)

Sustainability science is at the heart of everything we do at Unity College because to us, nothing is more important than the mark we make on this planet.

Sustainability science ...


Sustainable Engineering Cognitive Outcomes: Examining Different Approaches for Curriculum Integration

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Colorado School of Mines (CO)
  • The Citadel (SC)
  • University of Pittsburgh (PA)

As continued globalization of the world’s economic, environmental, and societal interactions strains the planet to meet anthropogenic demands, universities are striving to integrate sustainability education into engineering curricula intended ...


Mapping out Students’ Opportunity to Learn about Sustainability across the Higher Education Curriculum

  • University of Michigan (MI)

Decades of policy initiatives, a developing body of literature, and a growing cadre of practitioners are united in suggesting that the preeminent approach to educating students about sustainability is by ...


Transactional learning and sustainability co-creation in a university – business collaboration

  • University of Helsinki
  • Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) (Uusimaa)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the learning outcomes of the project-based learning in a Master Class programme on sustainability carried out in collaboration by the University ...


Becoming a competent teacher in education for sustainable development: Learning outcomes and processes in teacher education

  • Leuphana University of Lüneburg

This paper aims to provide a holistic approach to assessing student teachers’ competence development in education for sustainable development (ESD). This is to provide evidence on which teaching and learning ...

  • Posted April 17, 2020
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Exploring Undergraduate Attainment of Sustainability Competencies

  • Tufts University (MA)
  • University of New Hampshire (NH)

Are students graduating from sustainability education programs with the competencies that will enable them to act for sustainability? This case study 1.) explores the degree to which a project-based capstone ...

  • Posted March 6, 2020
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Sustainability 101: Guiding Students on a Sustainability Journey

  • University of Alberta (AB)

There have been many rigorous discussions about the purpose of sustainability education and the sets of learning objectives, learning outcomes or competencies that will best serve this purpose. Some scholars ...

  • Posted March 6, 2020
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Integrating sustainability in higher planning education through international cooperation: Assessment of a pedagogical model and learning outcomes from the students’ perspective

  • University of Belgrade
  • University of Stuttgart (Stuttgart)

Purpose This paper aims to supplement existing research on a joint approach to integrate sustainability into higher planning education (HPE) by facilitating an international transformative learning process. It looks at ...

  • Posted March 5, 2020
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Competencies and Pedagogies for Sustainability Education: A Roadmap for Sustainability Studies Program Development in Colleges and Universities

  • Colorado Mountain College (CO)

Sustainability studies educators in colleges and universities must identify and teach the knowledge, skills, and abilities their graduates will most need to advance sustainability while confronting perhaps the most serious ...


Sustainability Learning Outcomes: Are You Writing Them?

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)

For one reason or another, course syllabi at many colleges and universities now must include Learning Outcomes (LOs). Has your institution written a set of LOs for sustainability-focused or sustainability-related ...

  • Posted Dec. 4, 2019
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Preparing Graduates for the Sustainability Economy through an ILO Framework

  • Humber College (ON)

We are moving toward increasingly collaborative work environments where everyone can positively impact an organization's contribution to a sustainable economy. At Toronto's Humber College, our post-secondary graduates recognize ...

  • Posted Dec. 4, 2019
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Growing Strong Leaders: A Collaborative Approach

  • Dartmouth College (NH)

Sustainability problems are intersectional and multi-faceted. Solving these problems will require collaboration between stakeholders working in different sectors and communities, and using different strategies. Our approach to training changemakers and ...

  • Posted Dec. 4, 2019
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Sustainability Education Curriculum Mapping and Assessment Planning

  • University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (WI)
  • AASHE (PA)

The interdisciplinary field of sustainability programs is trending at many institutions. Assessments of programs is part of that reality to be in compliance with the Higher Learning Commissions and the ...

  • Posted Nov. 7, 2019
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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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