Abstract
PurposeAs one of the five concrete actions recommended for implementing sustainable development at universities (internal operations, institutional framework, research, education and capacity building), capacity building has received the least research attention. Although capacity building can be a tangible implementation of outreach that offers empowerment to universities, it is currently unclear how capacity building can be operationalised in concrete activities and which parties represent the university and the community. The purpose of this study is to provide the idea that capacity building can be organised through student training projects.Design/methodology/approachTo provide support for our suggestion that student training projects can act as an implementation method for capacity building, an illustrative case study is presented. The case study concerns an academic consultancy training project for students in the domain of sustainable development.FindingsThe case study analysis reveals that, as an implementation method, student training projects can provide benefits for both universities and communities. It appears that student training projects do not depend on individual engagement, on individual university staff members or on research grants and that they provide community members with access to resources, expertise and experiences of academics. Moreover, student training projects overcome the major challenges of both power distance and continuity.Originality/valueTo summarise, student training projects may provide a new, promising avenue as an implementation method for capacity building that provides substantial benefits and overcomes the challenges of other methods mentioned in the existing literature.
Highlights
IntroductionRecent research has recommended that implementing sustainable development at universities can result from concrete actions in five general domains, namely, internal operations, institutional framework, research, education and empowerment (Adams et al, 2018; Leal Filho, 2011; Lozano et al, 2015)
Sustainable development at universities has recently received quite some attention
Recent research has recommended that implementing sustainable development at universities can result from concrete actions in five general domains, namely, internal operations, institutional framework, research, education and empowerment (Adams et al, 2018; Leal Filho, 2011; Lozano et al, 2015)
Summary
Recent research has recommended that implementing sustainable development at universities can result from concrete actions in five general domains, namely, internal operations, institutional framework, research, education and empowerment (Adams et al, 2018; Leal Filho, 2011; Lozano et al, 2015). Most scholars agree that in the area of sustainable development at universities, capacity building and empowerment include one or more of the concepts of educating by providing tools and competences for social learning about, and through, systems behaviour. “The CRE-COPERNICUS University Charta,” 1994; “Magna Charta Universitatum Europaeum,” 1988; Wals, 2009) This has resulted in capacity building and empowerment at the regional level through regional research, educational relationships with firms and active collaboration with regional public and private actors (Caniëls and van den Bosch, 2011). It is important to determine ways in which acknowledged hurdles to successful outreach and capacity building can be avoided
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