IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i7p3958-d529105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability in Brandenburg Study Programs. Perspectives for Anchoring Sustainability in Higher Education Curricula

Author

Listed:
  • Jennifer Maria Krah

    (Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, 16225 Eberswalde, Germany)

  • Julian Reimann

    (Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, 16225 Eberswalde, Germany)

  • Heike Molitor

    (Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, 16225 Eberswalde, Germany)

Abstract

The study investigates the extent to which sustainability is anchored in university curricula of a federal state (Brandenburg, Germany). (1) It provides a baseline for identifying opportunities for sustainability-related curriculum reform by analyzing study programs, levels and type of degree, level of anchoring, and context within the documents. (2) The case studies included an analysis and quantitative evaluation of 748 curricular documents. (3) A third of the study programs refer to sustainability; to an equal extent in both bachelor’s and master’s programs, and to an above-average extent in the fields of science and engineering. There is a strong commitment to sustainability in 12% of the curricula; however, it is strongly anchored in only 3% of study and examination regulations, and in only 9% of module descriptions. (4) For the first time, we have comprehensive results on sustainability in university curricula of an entire federal state and can discuss potentials for its further integration. The innovative method was developed out of the National Monitoring on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and adapted to the federal state level; the analysis of curricula through a wider set of variables is transferrable to other states. (5) The study provides indications for the regional development of universities which is crucial for future regional sustainability transformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer Maria Krah & Julian Reimann & Heike Molitor, 2021. "Sustainability in Brandenburg Study Programs. Perspectives for Anchoring Sustainability in Higher Education Curricula," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-32, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3958-:d:529105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3958/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3958/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lili-Ann Wolff & Peter Ehrström, 2020. "Social Sustainability and Transformation in Higher Educational Settings: A Utopia or Possibility?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Mariana Mazzucato & Dirk Messner & Nebojsa Nakicenovic & Johan Rockström, 2019. "Six Transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 805-814, September.
    3. Jorrit Holst & Antje Brock & Mandy Singer-Brodowski & Gerhard de Haan, 2020. "Monitoring Progress of Change: Implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within Documents of the German Education System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-19, May.
    4. Lorenz Blume & Thomas Brenner & Guido Buenstorf, 2017. "Universities and sustainable regional development: introduction to the special issue," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 37(2), pages 103-109, October.
    5. Carmen Solís-Espallargas & Jorge Ruiz-Morales & Dolores Limón-Domínguez & Rocío Valderrama-Hernández, 2019. "Sustainability in the University: A Study of Its Presence in Curricula, Teachers and Students of Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-14, November.
    6. Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo & Francisco Manuel Moreno-Pino & Bárbara Sureda & Miguel Antúnez & Ibon Gutiérrez, 2019. "A Methodology to Analyze the Presence of Sustainability in Engineering Curricula. Case of Study: Ten Spanish Engineering Degree Curricula," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-27, August.
    7. Schneidewind, Uwe & Singer-Brodowski, Mandy & Augenstein, Karoline & Stelzer, Franziska, 2016. "Pledge for a transformative science: A conceptual framework," Wuppertal Papers 191, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
    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. Daniel Schiller & Verena Radinger-Peer, 2021. "Introduction: The Role of Universities in Regional Transitions towards Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-4, July.

    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. Leire Guerenabarrena-Cortazar & Jon Olaskoaga-Larrauri & Ernesto Cilleruelo-Carrasco, 2021. "Integration of Sustainability in Engineering and Architectural Studies in Spanish Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Chi Zhang & Zhongchang Sun & Qiang Xing & Jialong Sun & Tianyu Xia & Hao Yu, 2021. "Localizing Indicators of SDG11 for an Integrated Assessment of Urban Sustainability—A Case Study of Hainan Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo & Jordi Segalas & Gorka Bueno & Pere Busquets & Joan Climent & Victor G. Galofré & Boris Lazzarini & David Lopez & Carme Martín & Rafael Miñano & Estíbaliz Sáez de Cámara & Bá, 2021. "Tools for Embedding and Assessing Sustainable Development Goals in Engineering Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-30, November.
    4. Gesa Pflitsch & Verena Radinger-Peer, 2018. "Developing Boundary-Spanning Capacity for Regional Sustainability Transitions—A Comparative Case Study of the Universities of Augsburg (Germany) and Linz (Austria)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, March.
    5. Keeheon Lee, 2021. "A Systematic Review on Social Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence in Product Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-29, March.
    6. Ida Kubiszewski & Kenneth Mulder & Diane Jarvis & Robert Costanza, 2022. "Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 139-148, February.
    7. Oliver Reader, M. & Eppinga, Maarten B. & de Boer, Hugo J. & Petchey, Owen L. & Santos, Maria J., 2024. "Consistent ecosystem service bundles emerge across global mountain, island and delta systems," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Björnemalm, Rickard & Sandström, Christian & Åkesson, Nelly, 2023. "A Public Choice Perspective on Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies and the Behavior of Government Agencies," Ratio Working Papers 366, The Ratio Institute.
    9. Puertas, Rosa & Guaita-Martinez, José M. & Marti, Luisa, 2023. "Analysis of the impact of university policies on society's environmental perception," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Amin Jan & Mário Nuno Mata & Pia A. Albinsson & José Moleiro Martins & Rusni Bt Hassan & Pedro Neves Mata, 2021. "Alignment of Islamic Banking Sustainability Indicators with Sustainable Development Goals: Policy Recommendations for Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-38, March.
    11. Lejla Terzić, 2024. "An investigation of the interlinkages between green growth dimensions, the energy trilemma, and sustainable development goals: Evidence from G7 and E7 economies," Ekonomista, Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne, issue 1, pages 24-53.
    12. Iban, Muzaffer Can & Aksu, Oktay, 2020. "A model for big spatial rural data infrastructure in Turkey: Sensor-driven and integrative approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Paola Perez-Aleman & Tommaso Ferretti, 2023. "Creating innovation capabilities for improving global health: Inventing technology for neglected tropical diseases in Brazil," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 84-114, March.
    14. Mehmet Çağlar & Cem Gürler, 2022. "Sustainable Development Goals: A cluster analysis of worldwide countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 8593-8624, June.
    15. Zhang, Dongyang & Kong, Qunxi, 2022. "Renewable energy policy, green investment, and sustainability of energy firms," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 118-133.
    16. Jan Anton van Zanten & Rob van Tulder, 2020. "Beyond COVID-19: Applying “SDG logics” for resilient transformations," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(4), pages 451-464, December.
    17. Rozenn Perrigot & Komlanvi Elom Gbetchi, 2023. "Social franchise chains operating in African countries: are their social goals aligned with the 2030 United Nations sustainable development goals?," Post-Print hal-03715585, HAL.
    18. Ali M. Al-Bahi & Mohamed S. Abd-Elwahed & Abdelfattah Y. Soliman, 2021. "Implementation of Sustainability Indicators in Engineering Education Using a Combined Balanced Scorecard and Quality Function Deployment Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-28, June.
    19. Peterson K. Ozili & Paul Terhemba Iorember, 2024. "Financial stability and sustainable development," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 2620-2646, July.
    20. Reyes-Menendez, Ana & Clemente-Mediavilla, Jorge & Villagra, Nuria, 2023. "Understanding STI and SDG with artificial intelligence: A review and research agenda for entrepreneurial action," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(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:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3958-:d:529105. 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.