Opening up the Pandora's box of sustainability league tables of universities: a Kafkaesque perspective

The aim of this paper is to explore the institutional impact of sustainability league tables on current university agendas. It focuses on a narrative critique of one such league table, the UK's ‘Green League Table', compiled and reported by the student campaigning NGO, ‘People & Planet’ annually between 2007 and 2013. Through a Kafkaesque perspective, this paper offers the proposition that such league tables could be acting as an institutional hegemonic mechanism for social legitimacy, through the desire by universities to show that environmental issues are effectively under control. Espoused eco-narratives of the ‘carbon targets imperative’ and ‘engagement' can serve as a form of deception, by merely embracing the narrative as a rhetorical device. Moreover, they can serve the exclusive, particularistic self-interests of a growing legion of ‘carbon managers’, ‘sustainability managers’ and ‘environmental managers' in satisfying the neo-liberal institutional drive from their vice chancellors

Implementing and operationalising integrative approaches to sustainability in Higher Education: The role of project-oriented learning.

Higher education institutions across the world are increasingly placing an emphasis on students’ acquisition of a broader range of skills or attributes within the taught curriculum, which should lead to a widening of their chances of academic success, in particular in the employment market. Among other issues, matters related to sustainable development are playing a key role, but many universities do not yet cater for integrative approaches, which may help them to approach sustainability issues in a transformative way. It is therefore necessary to develop new approaches and methods, which may address this gap. Based on the importance of meeting this perceived research need, this paper defines the role of project-oriented learning, also designated as Project Based Learning, as a tool to support integrative approaches to sustainability in a higher education context. The scientific value of the paper lies in the provision of some examples of successful approaches to Project Based Learning and the identification of some of the trends that characterise it. The paper makes clear why project-oriented learning should be more widely used in support of integrative approaches to sustainability, and why it needs to become part of the routine of higher education institutions. The outline of some of the initiatives recently and currently being undertaken may inspire others and assist in the implementation of Project Based Learning

Education for sustainable development in higher education: evaluating coherence between theory and praxis

Universities are an important part of the process of change taking place in society. However, this is often overshadowed by these institutions giving priority to technocratic models in the relationship between science and society. In this context, according to Habermas, theories can serve to clarify practical questions and guide praxis into the right actions (social emancipation and rational autonomy). Habermas introduces the need to evaluate the particular contexts in which scientific arguments are made and assessed. The aim of this study was to develop a set of assessment criteria for education for sustainable development in higher education curricula. These were developed in line with Habermas by introducing further adaptions within the context of education for sustainable development. These criteria were tested in a blended learning master’s programme in Environmental Citizenship and Participation at the Universidade Aberta, Portugal. The following research tools were used as follows: (i) a questionnaire survey to the graduates; (ii) content analysis applied to the information guide and to the abstracts of the dissertations that were produced. The case study revealed that an absence of theoretical frameworks could lead to inconsistencies between theory and praxis. Improvements to curricula are then drawn from this study