Strengthening Sustainability Programs and Curricula at the Undergraduate and Graduate Levels (2020) / Chapter Skim
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The number of undergraduate and graduate degree programs, research institutes, and centers focused on sustainability has markedly increased in the past decade. Connected to this growth in higher education sustainability programs is a rich debate related to defining key competencies for these programs.
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The committee engaged business leaders, program directors, faculty, and students at three workshops held across the United States, including Austin, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Santa Cruz, California.2 Each workshop was designed to examine different approaches and drivers for a coherent curriculum in the growing number of higher education sustainability programs, and to identify how sustainability education could address enduring and emerging issues identified in frameworks as the 2 See Appendix D for the final workshop agendas. A short summary of each of these workshops is available on the National Academies Press website at www.nas.edu.
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However, the committee examined relevant literature and research where available. Strengthening Sustainability Programs With interest high among current and incoming students and the everincreasing need to improve human well-being while remaining within planetary boundaries, many higher education institutions are creating or expanding sustainability education programs.
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At the graduate level, sustainability programs, which may engage students from a variety of undergraduate disciplines, have to provide a foundational understanding of sustainability principles, competencies, and capacities, but the expectation is for students to develop depth in specific content, methods, or approaches (including depth in specific competencies and capacities)
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Student learning in higher education sustainability programs should include experiential learning opportunities with business, government, nongovernmental, or other civil society organizations. It should also include other community engagement opportunities via internships, student research, and professional development programs to foster specialized knowledge, technical expertise, and interpersonal skills for collaboration to address sustainability challenges from local to global scales (Eyler, 2009)
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Strengthening a Supportive Academic Environment The increase in sustainability education programs constitutes evidence that many campuses are taking steps to engage students, faculty, and staff on the topic. The committee focuses on how academic institutions can build sustainability education programs, including bridging disciplinary silos; promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; and strengthening federal support for sustainability programs in higher education, and where research on the future evolution of these programs and their impacts is needed.
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Federal Support of Sustainability Programs in Higher Education Policy makers have recognized the role that campus sustainability programs have in achieving societal goals. In 2008, Congress passed the Higher Education Sustainability Act of 2007 as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which established a competitive grant program through the U.S.
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Senate to reauthorize the program through what the bill sponsors titled the Higher Education Sustainability Act of 2019.4 The committee noted that since 2008, the federal agencies that support sustainability research and initiatives have broadened beyond the Environmental Protection Agency, the only agency designated in the legislation as a collaborating entity with the Department of Education, the grant administrator. Given the range of federal programs that currently support sustainability-related activities, other agencies would also be suitable to support grant programs for sustainability education and research.
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how core competencies and content areas in sustainability programs may be converging, diverging, or otherwise evolving; and (iv) how these programs will prepare stu dents for a post-2030 agenda for sustainable development.
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establish and lead a cross-sectoral effort to track and ana lyze employment in sustainability-focused jobs. To clarify the obligations of various stakeholders to strengthen sustainability programs in higher education, the final chapter compiles and organizes the committee's recommendations by stakeholder to strengthen sustainability programs in higher education, in addition to research agendas, given the urgency of our global sustainability challenges.
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2019. Developing change agents: Innovative practices for sustainability leadership.
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