IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i4p2271-d751309.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Higher Education Promotes the Integration of Sustainable Development Goals—An Experience in the Postgraduate Curricula

Author

Listed:
  • Belén López

    (Communication Department, ESIC, Business & Marketing School, ESIC University, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created big challenges and opportunities in Higher Education (HE). In this situation, several universities worldwide have responded with digital methods and hybrid classes in a short period of time. The aim of this paper is to show how the universities have adapted teaching methods to digital platforms in the academic year 2020–2021. This case study is based on the experience of 37 postgraduate communication students in the course Business and Communication from a Communication Programme. The objective of this course was to promote the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in business following the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) of the United Nations. To do this, the students provided different solutions related to the SDGs and developed a communication strategy to inform and engage the stakeholders in the companies analyzed in a hybrid class. The results show that using this methodology and working in digital platforms, students have learned the importance of SDGs through implementing specific solutions linked to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. Based on this analysis, they also developed a communication strategy showing how companies can improve society with specific actions through the lens of the SDG perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Belén López, 2022. "How Higher Education Promotes the Integration of Sustainable Development Goals—An Experience in the Postgraduate Curricula," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2271-:d:751309
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2271/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2271/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Libena Tetrevova & Jan Vavra & Simona Munzarova, 2021. "Communication of Socially-Responsible Activities by Higher Education Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Almaskati, Nawaf & Bird, Ron & Lu, Yue, 2020. "Corporate governance, institutions, markets, and social factors," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    3. Amr ElAlfy & Nicholas Palaschuk & Dina El-Bassiouny & Jeffrey Wilson & Olaf Weber, 2020. "Scoping the Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Research in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-21, July.
    4. Hannah Jun & Minseok Kim, 2021. "From Stakeholder Communication to Engagement for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Case Study of LG Electronics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Jouni Korhonen, 2003. "Should we measure corporate social responsibility?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 25-39, March.
    6. Kolk, Ans, 2016. "The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 23-34.
    7. Sang Jun Cho & Chune Young Chung & Jason Young, 2019. "Study on the Relationship between CSR and Financial Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-26, January.
    8. Rosa M. Muñoz & M. Valle Fernández & Yolanda Salinero, 2020. "Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Performance in the Spanish Wine Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Aucejo, Esteban M. & French, Jacob & Ugalde Araya, Maria Paola & Zafar, Basit, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 on student experiences and expectations: Evidence from a survey," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    10. Belen Lopez & Abel Monfort, 2017. "Creating Shared Value in the Context of Sustainability: The Communication Strategy of MNCs," Chapters, in: Okechukwu Lawrence Emeagwali (ed.), Corporate Governance and Strategic Decision Making, IntechOpen.
    11. Felipe Hernández-Perlines & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Luis Araya-Castillo, 2020. "Sustainable Growth in the Agro-Food Cooperatives of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, June.
    12. Okazaki, Shintaro & Plangger, Kirk & West, Douglas & Menéndez, Héctor D., 2020. "Exploring digital corporate social responsibility communications on Twitter," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 675-682.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lopez, Belen & Rangel, Celia & Fernández, Manuel, 2022. "The impact of corporate social responsibility strategy on the management and governance axis for sustainable growth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 690-698.
    2. Alla Mostepaniuk & Elsie Nasr & Razan Ibrahim Awwad & Sameer Hamdan & Hasan Yousef Aljuhmani, 2022. "Managing a Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Hua Yu & Muhammad Salman Shabbir & Naveed Ahmad & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Alejandro Vega-Muñoz & Heesup Han & Miklas Scholz & Muhammad Safdar Sial, 2021. "A Contemporary Issue of Micro-Foundation of CSR, Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior, and Environmental Performance toward Energy Saving, Carbon Emission Reduction, and Recycling," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Sarah Williams & David F. Murphy, 2023. "Learning from Each Other: UK Global Businesses, SMEs, CSR and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Zhenjiao Chen & Yaqing Liu, 2020. "The Effects of Leadership and Reward Policy on Employees’ Electricity Saving Behaviors: An Empirical Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    6. Sana Malik & Melissa Bessaha & Kathleen Scarbrough & Jessica Younger & Wei Hou, 2023. "Self-Reported Depression and Anxiety among Graduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining Risk and Protective Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, April.
    7. Asif Khan & Chih-Cheng Chen & Kwanrat Suanpong & Athapol Ruangkanjanases & Santhaya Kittikowit & Shih-Chih Chen, 2021. "The Impact of CSR on Sustainable Innovation Ambidexterity: The Mediating Role of Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Second-Order Social Capital," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-25, November.
    8. Rubio-Andrés, Mercedes & Ramos-González, Mª del Mar & Sastre-Castillo, Miguel Ángel & Gutiérrez-Broncano, Santiago, 2023. "Stakeholder pressure and innovation capacity of SMEs in the COVID-19 pandemic: Mediating and multigroup analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    9. Nijolė Burkšaitienė & Robert Lesčinskij & Jelena Suchanova & Jolita Šliogerienė, 2021. "Self-Directedness for Sustainable Learning in University Studies: Lithuanian Students’ Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-15, August.
    10. Lorena Para‐González & Carlos Mascaraque‐Ramírez, 2020. "The six dimensions of CSR as a driver of key results in the shipbuilding industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 576-584, March.
    11. Rahul Singh Gautam & Venkata Mrudula Bhimavarapu & Shailesh Rastogi & Jyoti Mehndiratta Kappal & Hitesh Patole & Aman Pushp, 2023. "Corporate Social Responsibility Funding and Its Impact on India’s Sustainable Development: Using the Poverty Score as a Moderator," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-12, February.
    12. Moliterni, Fabio, 2018. "Do Global Financial Markets Capitalise Sustainability? Evidence of a Quick Reversal," SAS: Society and Sustainability 274853, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    13. Simon Hartmann & Thomas Lindner & Jakob Müllner & Jonas Puck, 2022. "Beyond the nation-state: Anchoring supranational institutions in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1282-1306, August.
    14. Rafael Alcadipani & Cíntia Rodrigues Oliveira Medeiros, 2020. "When Corporations Cause Harm: A Critical View of Corporate Social Irresponsibility and Corporate Crimes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 285-297, November.
    15. Wang Hongxin & Mohammed Arshad Khan & Jian Zhenqiang & Laura-Mariana Cismaș & Mohammad Athar Ali & Usama Saleem & Lucia Negruț, 2022. "Unleashing the Role of CSR and Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior for Organizational Success: The Role of Connectedness to Nature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, March.
    16. Pamela Kent & Robyn McCormack & Tamara Zunker, 2021. "Employee disclosures in the grocery industry before the COVID‐19 pandemic," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4833-4858, September.
    17. Elisa Failache, 2023. "Taking advantage of COVID-19? Online learning, descentralization and tertiary education," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 23-09, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    18. Bu, Maoliang & Xu, Liang & Tang, Ryan W., 2023. "MNEs’ transfer of socially irresponsible practices: A replication with new extensions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
    19. Kawczyńska-Butrym Zofia & Pantyley Victoriya & Butrym Marek & Kisla Ganna & Fakeyeva Liudmila, 2022. "Changes in Students’ Life at Selected Universities in Central and Eastern Europe during the First Stage of the Pandemic," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 41(2), pages 125-137, June.
    20. Demirtaş, Burak Kağan & Türk, Umut, 2022. "Student performance under asynchronous and synchronous methods in distance education: A quasi-field experiment," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).

    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:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2271-:d:751309. 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.