Abstract
PurposeThis study aims to determine how sustainable development (SD) demands (according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) SD themes from 2005) are connected to the contents of education, research, development and innovation (RDI) in higher education institutions (HEI). Education and the RDI nexus may affect HEI’s capability to handle SD-related wicked problems and enhance their societal impact.Design/methodology/approachThis paper examined SD-oriented curricula contents of two universities (Brazil and Finland) and counted the number of SD-related research outcomes. In addition, conceptual modelling was used to analyse the mechanisms that may be directing HEIs’ SD work in local innovation.FindingsThe data showed a convergence deviation in the RDI of SD-related subjects between the two HEIs. There was no correlation between SD-oriented education and RDI-work in either HEI. Education and RDI processes have different UNECE SD themes at the focal point, and the education-research nexus is lacking. This difference indicates that new SD-related knowledge produced through RDI was not effectively used in education. Modelling revealed that the convergence in RDI outcomes arose from the same kind of local business, industry and societal challenges, implementing effective stakeholder pressures into HEIs. The results may indicate that stakeholder SD needs were not directly transferred into the competence qualification of the curriculum.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first quantitative study to reveal the independence of universities’ SD-related RDI subjects on educational curricula.
Highlights
Since the 1960s, the depletion of natural resources, increasing environmental pollution and social crises have been on the agenda of global environmental and social policies (Meadows et al, 2004)
The lack of such a relationship may indicate that the maximal potency of sustainable development (SD)-related societal impact of both higher education institutions (HEI) was diluted: new SD-related knowledge produced in the RDI process was not effectively used in the education of SD-related competencies
If the results are a common phenomenon in higher education, it may indicate that HEIs lose their maximal potency when handling the wicked problems of societies
Summary
Since the 1960s, the depletion of natural resources, increasing environmental pollution and social crises have been on the agenda of global environmental and social policies (Meadows et al, 2004). Wicked problems in SD are related to environmental pollution, social cohesion, legality, cultural confrontation and human health issues (Brown et al, 2010; Rittel and Webber, 1973). To challenge these threats, higher education institutes (HEIs) around the globe have invested efforts into the promotion of effective research and education on SD issues (Bettencourt and Kaur, 2011; Hoover and Harder, 2015; Clark et al, 2016). The objective of this study was to develop HEI alignment in SD-related education and RDI, as well as their impact on society
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