Education for sustainable development in the business programme to develop international Chinese college students’ sustainability in Thailand

Abstract

It is considered to be crucial for firms to incorporate the notion of sustainability in their business to achieve success in today's ever-changing commercial world. Hence, it is essential that students' awareness of sustainability and related actions is enhanced by embedding this notion in the curriculum in 21st century business education. Guidelines for developing a sustainability-based curriculum are provided in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Since previous researchers have mentioned the need to move the development of a sustainability curriculum in higher education institutions (HEIs) to the experimental stage, the aim of this study was to enhance the sustainability learning outcomes of undergraduate students in business programmes based on designing a PRME-based ESD course. 96 students participated in a quasi-experimental intervention. The project performance of both the experimental group (EG) and control group (CG) was used as a pre-test and post-test, and the results indicated that the students' sustainability learning outcomes were effectively enhanced by the PRME-based ESD course. Therefore, the PRME can be used as a framework for the reform of the business curriculum for sustainability, and the ESD's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 8, 9, 11, 12, and 17 can be undergraduate business students' basic learning objectives.