The project You Have a Part To Play: Higher Education for Sustainability bases itself on the idea that if we as a society are to achieve the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, we must view these goals as interdependent with one another. To implement the SDGs in Radboud University's programmes, the core team - consisting of Edwin van Meerkerk, Elize de Mul and Britt Broekhaus - is working with the Radboud Sustainability programme, the Radboud Sustainable Development Network, the Radboud Centre for Sustainability Challenges, and the faculties. There is also a collaboration with ArtEZ University of the Arts to develop forms of education that help students become aware of the complex issues of the SDGs.
'I see sustainability as an umbrella term for the task we face as a society: ensuring that humans, as part of the ecosystem, continue to have a meaningful and healthy existence in the future,' explains Edwin van Meerkerk, associate professor of Cultural Studies and project leader. 'That is a very large and complex task, which I love: for me, university education is all about precisely these kinds of large and complex issues - even if you often translate them into small, manageable chunks. Being able to deal with complexity requires self-confidence, creativity, the ability to work together and being able and daring to look beyond the boundaries of your own expertise'.
Starting at the base
The project members start at the basics by working on the curriculum of bachelor’s programmes. With a student and a lecturer from each programme, they explore the meaning and role of sustainability in that particular programme. Together, they explore how they can strengthen or broaden the role of sustainability, for example in the form of a new course, adjustments to an existing course or development of smaller components and forms of work that can be fitted into different courses.
Van Meerkerk: 'I am very much looking forward to the discussions we are going to have with teachers and students, per course, but also as a group with the various disciplines together. We are going to explore how the passion for their field can be combined with the big questions that sustainability raises and think about smart ways to give that a logical place in the programme. That will be a wonderful adventure, in which I will also learn a lot myself.'
Project team
- Dr Edwin van Meerkerk is associate professor of Cultural Studies and project leader of the Comenius project.
- Elize de Mul is a media philosopher and a postdoc attached to the project.
- Britt Broekhaus is a cultural studies graduate and a project assistant.