A review of progress and opportunities to foster development of sustainability-related competencies in engineering education

Abstract

Over the last decade and prompted by the United Nations (UN) 2030 Framework, significant engineering bodies have been calling for education directed towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this paper, the authors reflect on progress to enable SDG knowledge and skills in engineering studies, overviewing key examples of efforts within the global professional engineering and education community, including Australia and the United States of America (the US). Acknowledging differences in language and guidance around the world, the authors discuss the need to provide clear and concise language regarding: 1) statements for desirable graduate attributes, 2) required knowledge and skill (i.e. competency) development, and 3) commentary/ guiding elements and indicators. The paper concludes with recommending accreditation bodies and professional societies and colleges make use of current international review processes underway by the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO), to update accreditation and supporting documents to ensure graduates have capacity to deliver solutions for 'thriving humanity and planet' in the 21 st Century. The authors also challenge educators to review and renew their institution's desired graduate attributes and program offerings to ensure curriculum develops capacity for achieving the UN SDG goals, targets and indicators.

How Higher Education Institutions Walk Their Talk on the 2030 Agenda: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Meanwhile, the field of engineering emphasizes problem-solving methods that require students to develop trans-disciplinary skills (Orozco-Messana et al, 2020a, b). To foster these methods, engineering courses are often turning to new technologies-such as mobile devices and videos-to facilitate interdisciplinary projects and industry collaborations (Desha et al, 2019;Alonso-Garcia et al, 2019;Schina et al, 2020).…”

Adopting sustainability competence‐based education in academic disciplines: Insights from 13 higher education institutions

“…Integrating sustainability into curricula is key in providing students with the skills and insights to help societies become more sustainable (R. Lozano, 2006; Ploum et al, 2018; Stough et al, 2018). Educators are instrumental in this process, since they are the ones who ultimately can integrate sustainability into their courses (Ceulemans & De Prins, 2010; Rieckmann, 2018), and thus ensure that students develop the complete set of sustainability competences in the context of their studies (Desha et al, 2019; Kalsoom & Khanam, 2017). The challenges of urgent and at‐scale curriculum renewal are complex and complicated, with a variety of approaches observed in HEIs around the world (Desha & Hargroves, 2013; R. Lozano, Ceulemans, & Scarff Seatter, 2014).…”

Preliminary Assessment of Sustainable Development Goals by Freshmen Students of a Life Science Degree

“…For example, rubrics have been designed to assess sustainable implementation in student works [41]. Other studies give recommendations to foster sustainable competencies [31], [42] or present examples of activities and opinions of teachers [9], [21]. In our case, contemporary issue knowledge activities are carried out in the subject.…”

“…ISBN: 978-84-09-27666-0 theoretical approaches and teaching methodologies [30], and alignment of the management of the university with SDGs [12], [31], [32].…”