Embedded in the annual meeting of both the EU-funded “UE4SD – University Educators for Sustainable Development” project (23 November) and the Copernicus Alliance (25 November) the Copernicus Alliance Conference took place in Madrid on 24 November 2015. This year, the topic „Evaluation and Assessment of Higher Education for Sustainable Development” has been raised with plenum discussions, keynotes und scientific presentations.
After the welcome speeches by Clemens Mader (president of the Copernicus Alliance) and Fernando Galvan (host and president of the sustainability commission of the Spanish university association CRUE) the first plenum discussion dealt with the topic “Partnerships to enable global and local learning for sustainability in Higher Education”. Beside of Clemens Mader and Fernando Galvan, Mahesh Pradhan (Head of the Environmental Education and Training Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Daniella Tilbury (project leader of UE4SD and vice-chancellor of the university of Gibraltar) shared their experiences with the participants of the conference.
In the following keynote session Fuensanta Garcia (CRUE), Miguel Angel Galindo Marti (ANECA), Peter Glavic (Universität Maribor) and Rodrigo Lozana (Universität Utrecht) presented and discussed their research on „Sustainability Assessment of Higher Education Institutions“.
The afternoon was dedicated to short presentations in four parallel sessions. They comprised topics such as:
- Whole institution approaches of assessing sustainability in higher education
- Innovative teaching and learning for sustainable development
- Assessing and evaluation sustainability education
- Sustainability approaches at universities
The RCE Graz-Styria with Thomas Höflehner and Jonas Meyer represented the University of Graz as a member of the Copernicus Alliance. This association is a European Network of Higher Education Institutions promoting transformative learning and change for sustainable development in the Higher Education sector.
Pictures of the Copernicus Alliance Conference 2015 can be viewed here