IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i8p2347-d224226.html

Education for Sustainable Development 4.0: Lessons Learned from the University of Graz, Austria

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Brudermann

    (Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Ralf Aschemann

    (Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Manfred Füllsack

    (Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Alfred Posch

    (Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria)

Abstract

Higher education for sustainable development plays a crucial role in the transformation of society towards a more sustainable pathway of development. The new trends in society and technology experienced in the course of the fourth industrial revolution come with challenges, but also provide opportunities. In this paper, we reflect on the conceptual basis of education for sustainable development as approached at the University of Graz, Austria, and contrast this basis with the expectations stated by students. The results showed that students acknowledged the high importance of digital competencies and found it highly important to be confronted with future-oriented topics and contents. Interestingly, students seemed skeptical about online course formats and digitalization of teaching and clearly preferred the interactive classroom experience. Students also rated international topics and transdisciplinary thinking as fairly important. Interestingly, a relatively high share of students only saw mediocre added value in experiencing international classrooms, and in having international teachers, when it comes to meeting their top priority, which is being competitive in the job market. Education for sustainable development in the future will not only need to prepare students for international, interdisciplinary, and digital environments, but also will need to meet the expectations of demanding and ambitious students and provide them with bright career prospects.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Brudermann & Ralf Aschemann & Manfred Füllsack & Alfred Posch, 2019. "Education for Sustainable Development 4.0: Lessons Learned from the University of Graz, Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:8:p:2347-:d:224226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/8/2347/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/8/2347/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jahn, Thomas & Bergmann, Matthias & Keil, Florian, 2012. "Transdisciplinarity: Between mainstreaming and marginalization," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-10.
    2. Ashley Finlayson & Karine Markewitz & Jean-Marc Frayret, 2014. "Postsecondary Education in Industrial Ecology Across the World," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 18(6), pages 931-941, December.
    3. Lisa Benton-Short & Kathleen A. Merrigan, 2016. "Beyond interdisciplinary: how sustainability creates opportunities for pan-university efforts," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 387-398, June.
    4. Kevin Francis & Martha Henderson & Erin Martin & Kathleen Saul & Shangrila Joshi, 2018. "Collaborative teaching and interdisciplinary learning in graduate environmental studies," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(3), pages 343-350, September.
    5. V. Selva Lakshmi* & Dr. S. Ramachandran, 2018. "Examining and Demystifying the Social and Learning Issues of International Students at Indian Educational Institutions," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 501-509:5.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria José Sá & Sandro Serpa, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Axel Sikora & Tanya Titova-Kosturkova & Gordana Janevska & Mitko Kostov & Simona Halunga & George Suciu & Georgi Georgiev, 2023. "EREMI: An Innovative Interdisciplinary Approach for Higher Education in Resource Efficient Manufacturing Environments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    3. Laís Viera Trevisan & João Henrique Paulino Pires Eustachio & Bárbara Galleli Dias & Walter Leal Filho & Eugênio Ávila Pedrozo, 2024. "Digital transformation towards sustainability in higher education: state-of-the-art and future research insights," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 2789-2810, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Corrado Battisti, 2018. "Preparing students for the operational environmental career: an integrated project-based road map for academic programs," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(4), pages 573-583, December.
    2. Nicolás Ruiz, Néstor & Suárez Alonso, María Luisa & Vidal-Abarca, María Rosario, 2021. "Contributions of dry rivers to human well-being: A global review for future research," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    3. Juerges, Nataly & Jahn, Stephanie, 2020. "German forest management stakeholders at the science-society interface: Their views on problem definition, knowledge production and research utilization," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Eastwood, C.R. & Turner, F.J. & Romera, A.J., 2022. "Farmer-centred design: An affordances-based framework for identifying processes that facilitate farmers as co-designers in addressing complex agricultural challenges," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    5. Arora-Jonsson, Seema, 2016. "Does resilience have a culture? Ecocultures and the politics of knowledge production," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 98-107.
    6. Anne-Sophie Schaltegger & Bianca Vienni-Baptista, 2026. "Value landscapes in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and assessment: exploring indeterminacies and disconnects," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Lundgren, Jakob, 2022. "Unity through disunity: Strengths, values, and tensions in the disciplinary discourse of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    8. Haack, Frederik & Nagel, Manuel & Richters, Oliver & Schäfer, Ernst & Wunderlich, Sebastian, 2015. "Energieeffizienz & Rebound-Effekte im Kontext der Energiewende," EconStor Research Reports 142463, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    9. Hubeau, Marianne & Marchand, Fleur & Coteur, Ine & Mondelaers, Koen & Debruyne, Lies & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2017. "A new agri-food systems sustainability approach to identify shared transformation pathways towards sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 52-63.
    10. Mandy Singer-Brodowski, 2025. "The potential of transformative learning for sustainability transitions: moving beyond formal learning environments," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(9), pages 20621-20639, September.
    11. Jane Wardani & Joannette J. (Annette) Bos & Diego Ramirez‐Lovering & Anthony G. Capon, 2022. "Enabling transdisciplinary research collaboration for planetary health: Insights from practice at the environment‐health‐development nexus," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 375-392, April.
    12. von Wirth, Timo & Wissen Hayek, Ulrike & Kunze, Antje & Neuenschwander, Noemi & Stauffacher, Michael & Scholz, Roland W., 2014. "Identifying urban transformation dynamics: Functional use of scenario techniques to integrate knowledge from science and practice," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 115-130.
    13. Cong Xu & Chih-Fu Wu, 2025. "What factors may contribute to the improvement of students’ interdisciplinary integration competencies?—a comparative study of various interdisciplinary curriculum patterns," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    14. Carbajo, Ruth & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2018. "Renewable energy research and technologies through responsible research and innovation looking glass: Reflexions, theoretical approaches and contemporary discourses," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 792-808.
    15. Johanna Kramm & Melanie Pichler & Anke Schaffartzik & Martin Zimmermann, 2017. "Societal Relations to Nature in Times of Crisis—Social Ecology’s Contributions to Interdisciplinary Sustainability Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-12, June.
    16. Viola Hakkarainen & Katri Mäkinen‐Rostedt & Andra Horcea‐Milcu & Dalia D'Amato & Johanna Jämsä & Katriina Soini, 2022. "Transdisciplinary research in natural resources management: Towards an integrative and transformative use of co‐concepts," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 309-325, April.
    17. Pires, Aliny P.F. & Amaral, Aryanne G. & Padgurschi, Maíra C.G. & Joly, Carlos A. & Scarano, Fabio R., 2018. "Biodiversity research still falls short of creating links with ecosystem services and human well-being in a global hotspot," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(PA), pages 68-73.
    18. Dominique Hes & André Stephan & Sareh Moosavi, 2018. "Evaluating the Practice and Outcomes of Applying Regenerative Development to a Large-Scale Project in Victoria, Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-24, February.
    19. Jean Philippe Décieux, 2021. "The Dialectic of Transnational Integration and National Disintegration as Challenge for Multilevel Governance," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-11, July.
    20. Brennan, Michael & Rondón-Sulbarán, Janeet, 2019. "Transdisciplinary research: Exploring impact, knowledge and quality in the early stages of a sustainable development project," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 481-491.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:8:p:2347-:d:224226. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.