Learning for a Sustainable Future: Developing Key Competencies

Abstract

The future of education as we know it is rapidly transforming, aided and abetted by the accelerating technological changes as well as economic and social changes occurring worldwide. To ensure sustainability, higher education institutions are compelled to prepare graduates for jobs, and work with technologies, that are yet to be created. Specialists and experts are calling on universities to be agile and respond to serve the needs of changing societies and the evolving world around us. According to the Ernst & Young (EY) (2018) report, “Can the universities of today lead learning for tomorrow?,” Australia is reported to be a world leader in higher education contributing about $30 billion annually to the GDP of the nation, although learning demands are shifting to primarily new exemplars (Cawood, 2018). The EY report affirms that a university prototype embedded in a teaching and research model with “a large asset base and cumbersome back office- would prove to be unviable in the future” (Cawood, 2018, p. 4).

This chapter will highlight how institutions are forging new partnerships and creating new models of delivery in different locations to meet learner needs in context and remain sustainable in the future. It will discuss the embedding of sustainability models in the curriculum, elaborate on the approaches taken to deliver active learning experiences that foster collaboration, and expand on integrating technology in learning for interactive engagements.

Citation

Giridharan, B. (2020), "Learning for a Sustainable Future: Developing Key Competencies", Sengupta, E., Blessinger, P. and Yamin, T.S. (Ed.) Introduction to Sustainable Development Leadership and Strategies in Higher Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 22), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 135-144. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120200000022013