Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Nick Voulvoulis

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy

Professor of Environmental Technology
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7459n.voulvoulis Website

 
 
//

Location

 

103Weeks BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Kioupi:2020:10.3390/su12176701,
author = {Kioupi, V and Voulvoulis, N},
doi = {10.3390/su12176701},
journal = {Sustainability},
pages = {6701--6701},
title = {Sustainable development goals (SDGs): assessing the contribution of higher education programmes},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12176701},
volume = {12},
year = {2020}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Universities are engines of societal transformation and can nurture future citizens and navigate them towards sustainability through their educational programmes. Here, we developed an assessment framework for educational institutions to evaluate the contribution of their educational programmes to sustainability by reviewing the alignment of their intended learning outcomes to the enabling conditions for a vision of sustainability based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The tool is based on a systemic grouping of the SDGs into eight sustainability attributes, namely, Safe Operating Space, Just Operating Space, Resilient Sustainable Behaviours, Alternative Economic Models, Health and Wellbeing, Collaboration, Diversity and Inclusion, and Transparency and Governance, and uses a word code developed specifically for each sustainability attribute to assess the coverage of the SDGs in master’s programmes’ learning outcomes. The tool uses multi-criteria analysis to compare and rank programmes according to the alignment of their learning outcomes to the sustainability attributes and their contribution to sustainability. It was first tested using data from a University’s eighteen master’s programmes on a range of subjects and subsequently applied to compare forty UK and European master’s programmes focusing on environment and sustainability. Findings demonstrate that even environmental programmes face some important gaps related to health, wellbeing, diversity, inclusion, and collaboration, amongst others, and reinforce the need for all universities to understand the contribution of their programmes to sustainability. The application of the tool can generate empirical evidence on the effectiveness of university programmes and establish a strong argument regarding the potential of education as a tool for achieving the SDGs.
AU  - Kioupi,V
AU  - Voulvoulis,N
DO  - 10.3390/su12176701
EP  - 6701
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2071-1050
SP  - 6701
TI  - Sustainable development goals (SDGs): assessing the contribution of higher education programmes
T2  - Sustainability
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12176701
UR  - https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6701
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/82313
VL  - 12
ER  -
Download