Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education

The aim of the BUP Teachers’ Course is to better integrate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into the teaching, courses and study programmes. The emphasis is on teaching methodology by e-learning and two workshops. The course also includes a project part.

The learning objective of the course is to understand and implement both in theory and practice how to integrate the Agenda 2030 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the own teaching processes. The participants will be familiarized with the sustainable learning and teaching competences in Higher Education, and how to utilize Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) methodology.

The course emphasis especially the SDG number 4, Quality education, number 12 Responsible consumption and production, and number 13, Climate action, but all 17 SDGs are considered.

The course includes basic facts on sustainable development, with the main focus on ESD and teaching methodology, including e-learning, peer learning and work with an individual project. By planning, developing and presenting how each participant will better integrate ESD in their own teaching, the objective and outcome of the course is kept on a concrete level. The course also gives tools for feedback and critical reflection.

The target group is educators, teachers, and researchers in Higher Education within the Baltic University Programme. Applicants from universities and polytechnics outside the BUP are also welcome. Persons from the BUP member universities will have priority.

Dates and Content

• Course duration in total: September–March.
• The course includes:
  • Two workshops
    • 8–10.10 2024 at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.
    • February/March 2025 (time and place to be decided during the first workshop)
  • Online material, exercises and discussions in groups​.
  • Preparation and presentation of an individual project.

The course consists of five cycles. The participants will get an introduction to and use different methods and processes applied in the course cycles.

Each participant will develop a so-called Change project during the course. The Change project is based on an already existing course, study programme or a future teaching experience. The idea is to change the content to better integrate the ESD. The planning and implementation of the Change project will be the main outcome of the course. All the participants will have support of a critical friend and peer reviews via the e-platform Moodle and during the workshops.