A Methodology to Analyze the Presence of Sustainability in Engineering Curricula. Case of Study: Ten Spanish Engineering Degree Curricula

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to analyze the sustainability presence level in the curriculum of an engineering degree. The methodology is applied to ten engineering degrees of the Spanish university system, taught in three different universities. The design used for the research is quantitative and correlational. The analytical instrument used is the engineering sustainability map, which contains the learning outcomes related to sustainability that are expected of engineering students upon completion of their studies. The methodology is used to analyze the curricula of the ten engineering degrees in order to identify what learning outcomes of the engineering sustainability map are developed in each degree. The results indicate that the sustainability competency least present in all the degrees is the “participation in community processes that promotes sustainability,” with an average presence of 23.3%, while the most present is the “application of ethical principles related to the values of sustainability in personal and professional behavior,” with an average presence of 76.6%. In general, learning outcomes related to sustainability have an average presence of 52.1%, so practically half of the cells in the ten engineering sustainability maps are not developed in the degrees under study.

Embedding Sustainability Competences into Engineering Education. The Case of Informatics Engineering and Industrial Engineering Degree Programs at Spanish Universities

“…An external benchmarking typology has been chosen, comparing the behaviour of different universities that offer similar degrees. This approach has also been used for Sánchez Carracedo et al [76]-with a lower range of universities-but it is different from other studies aimed at analyzing the performance of just one university in its different degrees (internal benchmarking) [90]. Moreover, a functional approach has been adopted, focusing the study on two specific aspects that have been considered critical: the holistic vision of sustainability competencies and its systematic inclusion in the curricula.…”

“…A relevant experience for embedding sustainability competences in university curricula in a systematic way is the design of "competency maps" for each degree, establishing a framework that enables integrating these competences holistically [75,76]. These maps are defined as a matrix, where the rows correspond to four basic sustainability competences and the columns at three levels of domain based on the Miller pyramid [77]: know, know-how, demonstrate and do.…”

“…The committees coordinate the inclusion of sustainability competences throughout the curriculum systematically and coherently. The competence maps assign the development of sustainability competences at different levels and dimensions to specific courses [75,76].…”

What Do Freshmen Know about Sustainability? Analysing the Skill Gap among University Business Administration Students

“…(2021) [39] analyse the extent to which sustainability is present in the curricula of some education degrees; Valderrama-Hernandez et al (2020) [40] base their study on focus groups of fourth-year students from four universities; Sánchez-Carracedo et al ( 2021) [41] focus on first-and fourth-year students from several education degrees; and Sánchez-Carracedo et al (2019) [42] focus on the curricula of engineering degrees.…”

Engineers Changing the World: Education for Sustainability in Romanian Technical Universities—An Empirical Web-Based Content Analysis

“…In terms of the actual means of integrating sustainability in engineering education, previous research shows that although a multitude of SD-related course subjects have been introduced in higher education curricula over the last few years [49], when it comes to the curricula of the universities that teach engineering students, the focus is still on providing engineers knowledge to solve technological problems without taking into account, in many cases, the social and environmental impact of their work [50,51]. The research also points out that there is little strategic and systemic integration of sustainability into the curricula [52,53].…”