Survey: Behind the scenes

In order to have a first overview of what is being done at European Technical Universities towards education for sustainable development, we decide to conduct a survey. The questionnaire was sent out to more than 400 institutions along Europe and, of those who participated and responded it, a ranking was created. The idea of making the ranking was to show how much is being done so far and who is pushing SD into the curricula. The survey was not intended to promote competition, only participation.

We defined four categories for the final scores:

• Inspiration ( score >9)
• Reaching targets ( score 6 – 9)
• Making progress (score 3 – 6)
• Getting started (score <3)

The ranking assesses universities across five defined criteria, divided into six points:

1. Official Policy on SD for research, education and in-house activities. It evaluates the commitment of the university on ESD through an official plan implementation and/or an action plan taken. Parameters of answers are as follow:
   Global Indicator: maximum 2 points, divided as follow:
   • 60% for action plan
   • 40% for official policy
2. Education –courses and specialization: measures the number of courses and specializations on SD offered at undergraduate level, considering number of courses, ECTS credits and the nature of courses (elective and/or compulsory; distance learning, lecture teaching and/or active learning).
   Global indicator: maximum 2 points, divided as follow:
   • 80 % = nature of courses
     • active learning 50%
     • lecture teaching 25%
     • distance education 25%
   • 20% =specialization + nature of courses
     • compulsory courses 40%
     • elective courses 20%
     • if specialization, 40 %
3. Education- postgraduate program on SD divided in number of Master Programs offered by the university, number of credits (ECTS) and when the program started.
   Global Indicator: maximum 2 points, divided as follow:
   • If # of courses is 0 = 0
   • If # courses is between 1 and 5 = 1
   • If # of courses is higher than 5 = 2
4. Education- embedding SD in the curricula; reflects the degree to which universities promote SD into their curricula.
   Global Indicator: maximum 2 points, divided as follow:
   • 0 o 1 = 0 (0 = no, 1= no answer)
   • if 2 = 2 ( 2= yes)
5. In house EMS, indicating the extent of adopting and environmental management system in campus. Parameters of answers are as follow:
   • 0 = no,
   • 1 = no answer,
   • 2= yes
   Global Indicator: maximum 2 points, divided as follow:
   • if yes = 70%
   • if yes + ISO14000 = 80%
   • if yes + EMAS = 90%
   • if yes + ISO14000 + EMAS = 100%

51 Technical Universities chose to reply the survey and they are featured in the first EESD Observatory report. You can download the report in PDF from here.
We expect to risen participation for the following edition of the report that will be presented at the EESD2008 Conference to be held in TU Graz, Austria in September 2008. We thank all universities for participating.

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