Juliana Hilf, Desalegn Yayeh Ayal, Ulisses M. Azeiteiro, Henri-Count Evans, Inga Grinfelde, José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra, Jasenka Gajdoš Kljusurić, João Carlos Correia Leitão, Chunlan Li, Newton R. Matandirotya, Bethwel Mutai, Gustavo J. Nagy, Thierry Razanakoto, Jame Schaefer, Goran Trbic, Roberto Ariel Abeldaño Zuñiga, Sane Pashane Zuka, Charles Galdies, Adriana Consorte-McCrea, Francisco Platas, Mittul Vahanvati, Pedi Obani, Safwatun Nida, Lucas Gabriel Zanon, Mayara Régia Sousa de Melo, Renato da Costa dos Santos, Alison Glover
In order to drive transformation processes in higher education institutions (HEIs) and to foster sustainable behavior among students, learning formats and platforms that enable participation and promote competence development in the sense of an education for sustainable development (ESD) are essential to provide students and staff with opportunities to contribute to a common campus and to enhance their change agency. Participation and transformative learning are recognized ESD approaches, and this chapter presents a course that combines these with opportunities to be part of a university’s development towards a more sustainable institution. Participation also means acknowledging bottom-up efforts: At Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (OVGU), the Eco-Social University Days (ESUD) are mainly organized and implemented by students, with coordination and financial support of the university’s sustainability office, and the commitment of researchers, teachers, and regional associations. The idea of ESUD has been integrated in the context of an inter- and transdisciplinary elective course dealing with topics of sustainable development (SD). The aim was to make students aware of possibilities to get involved, to promote knowledge transfer within the university, and to animate students with little previous knowledge or low intrinsic motivation who are yet to become change agents. In order to achieve the learning objectives inspired by the Brundiers et al. (2021) competence model, this course was divided into two parts: the theoretical “Footprint” and the practical “Handprint.” Students developed projects, which they based upon the scientific theoretical foundation taught in class. The results were incorporated into the organization of the ESUD 2023 and inspired similar lectures. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
Center for Sustainable Development (Greens), Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina (Unisul), Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil; School of Urban and Regional Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; Kgotso Development Trust, Beitbridge, Zimbabwe; Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Centre, Beitbridge, Zimbabwe; Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay; CERED, University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar; Marquette University, Milwaukee, United States; University of Sierra Sur, Oaxaca, Mexico; University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Land Economy, University of Malawi, The Polytechnic, Blantyre 3, Malawi; Institute of Earth Systems, University of Malta, Msida, Malta; Academy for Sustainable Futures, Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom; Casa de Cultura de la UAEMéx en Tlalpan, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico; School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; University of Bradford, Bradford, United Kingdom; Science Education Department of Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia; University of São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil; State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil; Universidade do Contestado-UNC, Mafra, Brazil; The Open University, Cardiff, United Kingdom; Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Food Security Studies, College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa Univesity, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; The Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Eswatini, Manzini, Kwaluseni Campus, Matsapha, South Africa
