Universities In Sustainable Development Research Articles

Sustainable development universities: key initiatives and impact on student awareness and engagement

Purpose: This paper aimed to examine what the most important initiatives and sustainable development goals are visible in the activities of sustainable development universities (SDUs), where sustainable development issues are considered a priority in the opinion of students from in total 10 countries around the world, and how this affects the awareness and involvement of students, the main stakeholders of SDUs. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted among students at universities using the CAWI questionnaire in 2022. In the further part of the work, a statistical study was carried out using the non-parametric Pearson's Chi-square test for 2 × 2 tables and the PQStat 1.8 program from PQStat Software. Findings: The study showed that students positively perceive initiatives and sustainable development goals at universities and actively participate in them, especially at public universities. Moreover, research has shown that the university's efforts towards sustainable development increase students' awareness and involvement in sustainable development, contributing to creating a more sustainable future and "Society 5.0". Research limitations/implications: The study focused on the association between university initiatives and students' awareness and involvement, but it cannot establish a causal relationship. There might be other factors influencing students' engagement that were not explored in this research. Furthermore, the study primarily focuses on students, thereby excluding the perspectives and involvement levels of other stakeholders such as faculty, staff, and local communities. Understanding the views of these groups is critical for a more comprehensive assessment of SDUs' impact on sustainable development. Practical implications: The article can guide universities on what sustainable development activities students need and how universities can achieve sustainable development goals. Originality/value: The article fills the gap in the analysis of how the activities undertaken by sustainable development universities in the field of sustainable development affect the awareness and involvement of students. Keywords: managing sustainable development, sustainable development universities, CAWI survey, awareness. Category of the paper: research paper.

The Role of Universities in Sustainable Development and Circular Economy Strategies

In this article, the conditions and determinants of the introduction and development of the circular economy (CE) in Poland were presented against the background of the widely discussed essence of circular economy, with particular emphasis on the Polish mining sector. In addition, the European Green Deal—an action plan for a sustainable economy for the entire European Union, was discussed. Particular attention was paid to the role of human resources in the area of supporting research and stimulating innovation, and in the area of activating education and training. These issues are further discussed in the next chapter by presenting the forms, ways and scope of education for sustainable development in the international context. Another chapter describes the EIT Raw Materials KAVA 5 RIS competition in Poland (in Kraków) at AGH-UST from 2019 to 2022, an international project in a consortium of four universities whose main objective is to strengthen entrepreneurship in the V4 countries in line with the recommendations of the “Green action plan for SMEs” in a way to meet the requirements of circular economy. The initiatives and trainings carried out within the framework of this project were discussed, and the results of the student survey on the level of knowledge achieved regarding entrepreneurship in the area of the raw materials industry were analysed. The validity and necessity of continuous education in eco-responsible citizenship has thus been confirmed.

PRIORITIES OF INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY: THE EXPERIENCE OF ATYRAU UNIVERSITY NAMED AFTER KH. DOSMUKHAMEDOVA

Within the framework of this work, the innovative educational environment of the Atyrau University named after Kh. Dosmukhamedov (AU) is considered. The role and the effects of the development of the innovation system of the university are analyzed and shown, the main strategic goals are revealed. The model for the development of educational infrastructure was substantiated, which implies an increase in the number of students, the modernization of educational programs, the launch of international educational programs in English, the implementation of innovative projects, including the commercialization of the results of scientific activities based on the business incubator “i-Space”, the promotion of the university for more high positions in national rankings of multidisciplinary universities, in international rankings, including the world ranking of universities for sustainable development “Green Metric”. The results of the study confirm the importance of the Development Strategy of AU for 2020-2025 as an alternative and an important step in creating an innovative university environment for solving problems of strengthening scientific potential, raising the status of a scientist, teacher of AU, increasing the contribution of university science to the needs of social partners, modernizing the content of academic activities in the context world trends, realizing their potential in striving for higher positions in the national ratings of multidisciplinary universities, in the international ratings of sustainable development "Green Metric".

Developing the intellectual and social capital of universities for sustainable development: innovative competence of the teacher and knowledge management

Intellectual and social capital is becoming an important economic resource for the development of an organization and a country. Universities that represent education, science and innovation are increasingly focusing on improving the intellectual and social capital of workers and organizations. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the increment of the innovative potential of the university for the development of the intellectual and social capital of the organization as an economic resource for the sustainable development of the university in the era of the Internet and the knowledge society. The study found that in order to increase the intellectual and social capital of an organization, it is necessary to create a special innovative environment for interaction, discussions and trainings at the interdepartmental and interfaculty level of staff and students. The development of the intellectual potential of employees can be ensured through the improvement of the innovative competence of teachers and students. This competence is proposed to include information on knowledge management, knowledge flows, diffusion of innovations,etc. Innovation competence will help to give not only a certain economic effect through the creation of new innovative products or educational services based on cooperation of scientists from different directions, but also strengthen the professional pedagogical competence of teachers.

Are the Teachers and Students Satisfied: Sustainable Development Mode of Entrepreneurship Education in Chinese Universities?

Entrepreneurship education plays an important role in sustainable development. Chinese governmental agencies are making all-out efforts to promote schoolwide entrepreneurship education from top to bottom to achieve sustainable economic and social development. This is a phenomenon worth studying and summarizing. Improving the satisfaction degree of teachers and students of entrepreneurship education in universities for sustainable development becomes a typical mode of entrepreneurship education in Chinese universities. The data are derived from 12,269 valid questionnaires in student volume and 1,241 valid questionnaires in teacher volume from top universities in China, and regression and variance analyses were applied. The results show that the overall satisfaction of teachers and students is higher than the national average. There are significant differences in the overall satisfaction of different types of teachers and students. Teachers are most satisfied with the organizational leadership measures of the universities in entrepreneurship education and least satisfied with the lack of professional human resource management strategies for entrepreneurship education teachers. Students are most satisfied with entrepreneurship policy and least satisfied with entrepreneurship learning, especially that entrepreneurship theory learning and practice learning are closely combined with students’ majors. The overall satisfaction of students of entrepreneurship education mainly comes from the influence of “entrepreneurship policy dividend,” entrepreneurship learning, and entrepreneurship competition and entrepreneurship practice, which go hand in hand. The overall satisfaction of teachers is most affected by the satisfaction of organizational leadership, followed by the satisfaction of mechanism guarantee and teaching management. This study introduces the sustainable development model of entrepreneurship education in top Chinese universities through the improvement of satisfaction of entrepreneurship education and has certain reference significance for managers and teachers of entrepreneurship education practice in other developing countries.

ARAB UNIVERSITIES AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The concept of social responsibility is no longer limited to charitable and voluntary activity, butin fact it has become a broader and more comprehensive concept that includes solutions to the economic,social and environmental problems of societies. Moreover, sustainable development cannot beachieved in isolation from the close relationship between higher education, its institutions and society.Universities are essential as a pillar of society, as they play a pivotal role in raising awareness of socialresponsibility among their students, faculty and other employees, in a way that causes them to act as socialpersonalities who defend collective perspectives and do not choose to embrace individual thinking.Accordingly, the current research paper aims to provide a conceptual framework that clarifies therole of social responsibility of universities in sustainable development, dealing with the concept of socialresponsibility and its various aspects. The paper presents a number of recommendations that ensure thatuniversities are strengthened in the social responsibility that is expected to achieve and support sustainabledevelopment efforts.The programs provided as an example to Future University in Egypt must also meet social needs,instead of expressing a purely economic perspective, they should contribute to the sustainable developmentof the context in which the university operates.

Fostering Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility in Higher Education: The Case of Tor Vergata University of Rome

Abstract In the panorama of international strategies and commitments to sustainability, education is central to the pursuit of sustainable development. Educational institutions at all levels are playing a new role in promoting values and ideals linked to sustainable behavioral models. These models can face the complexity of reality in a cooperative, active and responsible way, leading to a vision for solidarity and progress. In this context, universities face huge challenges. They must recognize the changes happening in society and change accordingly. Universities are therefore increasingly required to actively introduce attitudes and behaviors that favor sustainable development and involve the entire academic community in this process. This paper aims to define the role of universities in sustainable development. As well as training professionals, their roles and responsibilities mean that they strongly influence the societies in which they operate. To become sustainable and ensure that their respective territories follow suit, universities must change internally and initiate systemic processes to engage all members of their communities. Moreover, dynamic bottom-up models of learning and dissemination of environmental sustainability and social responsibility should aim to encourage students to be active inside and outside their universities. After a detailed literature review, this paper explores how sustainable development should be used in educational paths as well as didactic activities to influence the way students think, act and engage within their academic communities. Based on the objective of this work, the case of the Tor Vergata University of Rome is used to describe the results of the active change.

Foreign Language Training Transformation for Sustainable Development: Trends and Experiences

The aim of this paper is to analyze the ways and identify the main trends of language learning transformation in universities for sustainable development in order to encourage students’ soft skills and competences for real commitment and interaction. Education is considered as a means through which individuals can improve their quality of life. If we redesign institutional educational programs on language learning based on students’ needs and expected outcomes, then both the quality of language education and the quality of life will improve dramatically. It also tries to consider the directions to implement sustainability in foreign language teaching through curriculum, interdisciplinary approach and innovation.

Role of International Universities in Generating Green Technologies

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the participatory role of universities in generating green patent in the transport segment. The study utilizes the World Intellectual Property Organizations (WIPO) product International Patent Classification (IPC) green inventory patent and patent scope database for the period from 1970 to 2018 for 152 contracting states. We found that patent applications had been growing around the world, but at a slower phase. At present 756 universities are actively generating green patents particularly universities from China. In aggregate Universities applied 6108 PCT applications and national patents in the category of transport environmentally sound technologies. This research contributes to the evidence on the role of universities in sustainable development.

UNIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS FOR ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION

University is an institution with a high potential to promote changes that lead to better social outcomes in terms of sustainability and social responsibility. Therefore, it is seems highly necessary to know what sustainability strategies Universities are following, to what extent they are assuming their role as agents of change and in what lines of work they should deepen in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The objective of this paper is to present the results of a research work that analyses and evaluates, from an interdisciplinary approach, the role of universities in sustainable development. More specifically, the paper carries out an evaluation of the strategies adopted by three Spanish universities: Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid and Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. The final output of this work is a system of University Sustainability Assessment Indicators, which will allow, on the one hand, monitoring of university actions in sustainability and, on the other, formulate new initiatives that improve university sustainability performance.

The Politics of e-Learning Technologies with Nigerian Universities for Sustainable Development

The Politics of e-Learning Technologies with Nigerian Universities for Sustainable Development

Interview with Professor dr. Daniella Tilbury

Interview with Professor dr. Daniella Tilbury Dean of Sustainability, The University of Gloucestershire, UK, President, the Copernicus Alliance of Universities for Sustainable Development, Chair, UNESCO Global Monitoring and Evaluation Expert Group in ESD, UK government nominated Member, UNECE Expert Group on ESD Competences, Co-leader, Sustainable Futures Leadership Academy

Introduction: Technical Universities for Sustainable Development – Learning to Deal with Complexity

Introduction: Technical Universities for Sustainable Development – Learning to Deal with Complexity

Cooperation between non-governmental organizations and university in sustainable development

Sustainable development is meeting the demands and expectations of today without sacrificing the chances of meeting those of future generations. Non-governmental organizations are institutions founded with private initiation and independently of any state organ.The aim of the study is to reveal the opinions of teacher candidates who participated in the project and adults who attended the literacy teaching project that were included in the adult education programs, about the gains that the training program has brought to them.

Assessment of sustainability ‐ Studies at universities and colleges in Lithuania

Presents the intermediate results from the national discussion “Universities for Sustainable Development”, which is going on in the frame of Educational Sector of AGENDA 21 for the Baltic Sea Region in Lithuania. The assessment of the current situation and development of the guidelines for the regional action plan were considered as the main goals of the working group. National working groups have carried out informal discussions and elaborated questionnaires for universities and colleges. The outcomes from the discussions and statistical results of inquests are presented.

The Role of the University in Sustainable Development – Challenge and Opportunities

The Role of the University in Sustainable Development – Challenge and Opportunities