IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/manmar/v13y2018i3p1064-1075n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mapping higher education for sustainable development in Portugal

Author

Listed:
  • Fonseca Luis Miguel

    (ISEP – P. Porto, School of Engineering and CIDEM R&D, Porto, Portugal)

  • Portela Ana Rita

    (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal)

  • Duarte Beatriz

    (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal)

  • Queirós João

    (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal)

  • Paiva Luis

    (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal)

Abstract

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) addresses sustainable development issues, in the economic, environmental, and social dimensions. The positive role of higher education institutions (HEIs), such as Universities and Polytechnic Institutes, in educating decision makers and leaders, and therefore contributing to progress and the public good, has been widely acknowledged. This investigation aims to map the BSc and MSc courses offered by Portuguese HEIs that address Sustainability (or Social Responsibility, or Ethics) in their curricula with the aim of proving their graduates with the right knowledge and competencies to overcome the Sustainable Development challenges. A systematic review utilizing a structured approach was used to analyze Portuguese HEIs BSc and MSc courses and the content analysis of their curricular units. The conclusions show that Sustainability (or Social Responsibility, or Ethics) is covered in most Social Sciences, Engineering, and Management, BSc and MSc courses, offered by the top 8 Portuguese Higher Education Institutions. However, ESD is fragmented by different approaches, issues, methodologies, and implications, lacking a consistent body of knowledge. Some courses focus more on the Social dimension, while others are more directed to the Environment or the Economic one. Sometimes the chosen approach is more normative (do what is right to do; the ethical way) and in other cases is more instrumental (do what is good for the business; the business case). Social Sciences, Engineering and Science, and Management and Economics are the three top clusters that address Sustainability related syllabus in their curricula, with 49 hours teaching hours in average for the curricular units covering Sustainability (with considerable variation). Universities have more curricular units addressing the topic while Polytechnic Institutes show a higher number of hours per curricular unit and most are of compulsory nature (while in Universities more than 50% of the curricular units are of optional nature). As the collected information was in some cases of generic nature, additional research should be used to confirm and detail these results and evaluate the effectiveness of this education to empower students to act as change agents for Sustainable Development. Benchmarking with other countries (e.g., from the European Union) is also an interesting avenue to pursue this investigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Fonseca Luis Miguel & Portela Ana Rita & Duarte Beatriz & Queirós João & Paiva Luis, 2018. "Mapping higher education for sustainable development in Portugal," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 13(3), pages 1064-1075, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:manmar:v:13:y:2018:i:3:p:1064-1075:n:4
    DOI: 10.2478/mmcks-2018-0023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/mmcks-2018-0023
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/mmcks-2018-0023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Valentina Mihaela Ghinea & Alina Mihaela Dima & Shahrazad Hadad, 2017. "Excellence Model for Sustainable Convergence in the EU Higher Education," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(S11), pages 1107-1107.
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    3. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    4. Thomas F. Nelson Laird & Mark E. Engberg & Sylvia Hurtado, 2005. "Modeling Accentuation Effects: Enrolling in a Diversity Course and the Importance of Social Action Engagement," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(4), pages 448-476, July.
    5. Jasmin Godemann & Jan Bebbington & Christian Herzig & Jeremy Moon, 2014. "Higher education and sustainable development," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(2), pages 218-233, February.
    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. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    2. Ingrid Boas & Frank Biermann & Norichika Kanie, 2016. "Cross-sectoral strategies in global sustainability governance: towards a nexus approach," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 449-464, June.
    3. Wilson, Christopher & van der Velden, Maja, 2022. "Sustainable AI: An integrated model to guide public sector decision-making," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    4. Elena NECHITA, 2019. "Analysis of the Relationship between Accounting and Sustainable Development. The Role of Accounting and Accounting Profession on Sustainable Development," The Audit Financiar journal, Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania, vol. 17(155), pages 520-520.
    5. Anne P. M. Velenturf & Phil Purnell, 2017. "Resource Recovery from Waste: Restoring the Balance between Resource Scarcity and Waste Overload," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Nikos Chatzistamoulou & Phoebe Koundouri, 2020. "The Economics of Sustainable Development," DEOS Working Papers 2005, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    7. OGREAN Claudia, 2015. "Corporate Initiatives And Strategies To Meet The Environmental Challenges – Contributions Towards A Green Economic Development," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 10(3), pages 62-70, December.
    8. Wiśniewska Anna Maria, 2021. "Sustainable development and management of medical tourism companies in Poland," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 57(2), pages 151-160, June.
    9. Simon Ling & Adam Landon & Michael Tarrant & Donald Rubin, 2021. "The Influence of Instructional Delivery Modality on Sustainability Literacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-15, September.
    10. Esther Prieto-Jiménez & Luis López-Catalán & Blanca López-Catalán & Guillermo Domínguez-Fernández, 2021. "Sustainable Development Goals and Education: A Bibliometric Mapping Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    11. Juliana Segura-Salazar & Luís Marcelo Tavares, 2018. "Sustainability in the Minerals Industry: Seeking a Consensus on Its Meaning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-38, May.
    12. Luis Fonseca & Filipe Carvalho & Gilberto Santos, 2023. "Strategic CSR: Framework for Sustainability through Management Systems Standards—Implementing and Disclosing Sustainable Development Goals and Results," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-24, August.
    13. Michaela Maurer & Franz Xaver Bogner, 2020. "First steps towards sustainability? University freshmen perceptions on nature versus environment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, June.
    14. Kosa Golić & Vesna Kosorić & Slavica Stamatovic Vuckovic & Kosara Kujundzic, 2023. "Strategies for Realization of Socially Sustainable Residential Buildings: Experts’ Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-31, April.
    15. Else Ragni Yttredal & Nathalie Homlong, 2020. "Perception of Sustainable Development in a Local World Heritage Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    16. López-González, A. & Domenech, B. & Ferrer-Martí, L., 2018. "Sustainability and design assessment of rural hybrid microgrids in Venezuela," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 229-242.
    17. Mariusz Izdebski & Marianna Jacyna, 2021. "An Efficient Hybrid Algorithm for Energy Expenditure Estimation for Electric Vehicles in Urban Service Enterprises," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-23, April.
    18. Karen Holm Olsen & Fatemeh Bakhtiari & Virender Kumar Duggal & Jørge Villy Fenhann, 2019. "Sustainability labelling as a tool for reporting the sustainable development impacts of climate actions relevant to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 225-251, April.
    19. Cecilia Smaniotto & Anna Saramin & Laura Brunelli & Maria Parpinel, 2022. "Insights and Next Challenges for the Italian Educational System to Teach Sustainability in a Global Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    20. Maria Cerreta & Gaia Daldanise & Ludovica La Rocca & Simona Panaro, 2021. "Triggering Active Communities for Cultural Creative Cities: The “Hack the City” Play ReCH Mission in the Salerno Historic Centre (Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-22, October.

    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:vrs:manmar:v:13:y:2018:i:3:p:1064-1075:n:4. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.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.