Advancing Sustainability Education

This week we have been developing plans for the symposium that we are organising in collaboration with Professor Walter Leal and team at HAW Hamburg University and UTRI (a centre focusing on sustainability) at Umeå university. The symposium Competence Building in Sustainable Development in Undergraduate and Post-graduate programs will be held at Umeå University on the 22^nd -23^rd February 2024. We invite all that are interested in having a dialogue about how to build sustainability competence capacity for students in higher education across disciplines.

In our previous experience at the symposium Sustainability in Business Education, Research and Practice hosted at Liverpool John Mores University in England last February 2023, we found a community of great inspiration, support and stimulation for our work in competence building for sustainability. The collaborations we have fostered since this event have helped us to realise some of the goals we have for the project. We would like to reach out to all lecturers that have been working with sustainability in their education to share their experience and enhance our journey on the life-long learning path for sustainability. We encourage everyone to come to the next event to meet new great minds and seek out new collaborations. I assure you that it will be a rewarding experience. The engagement in the community can provide wonderful energy for you too!

Many lecturers at universities across Sweden, Europe and further afield have been engaged in education for sustainable development since about the 1980s. With this symposium we have the chance to come together to collaborate and share experiences to create a space for transformation in education for sustainability. Do you have a little time to come join a wonderful community of ESD? What steps do we need to take next?

A Call for abstracts (200 words) has been posted, with the deadline of 30^th October 2023. Full papers expected in March 2024. If you have an idea, extended abstract or concrete paper or project that you would like to present, all can be inspirational. Please contact us if you have any questions and we look forward to meeting you soon.