In light of the ongoing global challenges, the role of higher education institutions is vital. Universities, said the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, in her message to the Association of Pacific Rim Universities Annual Presidents’ Meeting in June 2023, can make the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs a reality using their “knowledge, resources, and influence.” “This includes integrating the SDGs into university curricula and offering interdisciplinary courses,” she added.
The Deputy Secretary-General also mentioned that “universities can equip their students with the necessary knowledge and skills to become change-makers. In turn, students — as future leaders — can advance the SDGs through their advocacy efforts and engagement and by aligning their academic pursuits with sustainable development principles.” The , a member institution of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) in Portugal, is pointing in that direction.
SDGs: Humanity’s Great Challenges?is a brand-new initiative that the university launched in 2022 as part of its Strategic Development Plan for 2025 in order to create a shared and collective consciousness of these common and global challenges. Its main goal is to introduce dedicated and specialized courses on the SDGs into the undergraduate as well as graduate academic curricula, reinforcing the institution’s commitment to pursuing an educational agenda that is aligned, in practice, with sustainability.
Promoting an integral ecology of knowledge appears as a structuring axis of the ‘Teaching Mission’ in the plan mentioned above to train the best professionals. And within this particular context, pedagogical and curricular innovation are of course, fundamental. The development of versatile profiles in the students, articulating transversal competencies, and the mastery of diversified conceptual frameworks based on a solid knowledge foundation, necessarily imply the design of flexible curricula.
The latter enables, for instance, differentiated academic paths and vast disciplinary choices.?Through this initiative, UCP aims to raise awareness about sustainable development while providing students with a multidisciplinary approach to exploring the challenges and opportunities associated with the SDGs. The courses are co-created by different schools of the university and involve a diverse group of scholars who bring together their distinct views to create an innovative and integrated perspective.?
The initiative consists of developing several courses, each dedicated to a specific Goal and organized in six sessions. Over 2,000 university students were surveyed to determine which courses to offer first. As a result, an elective focused on??was the start. Seventeen scholars from eleven schools were involved in the courses’ design, which are taught online and in English, and are available to any undergraduate student, allowing participants from campuses nationwide, including Braga, Lisbon, Porto, and Viseu.?
According to Nuno Moreira da Cruz, one of the professors involved in the project, the courses “provide students with an integrated and holistic way to comprehend the challenges facing different dimensions of human life using the universal language of the SDGs, allowing them to have a clear understanding of the urgent call to action for humanity.” “This enables students to develop critical skills to analyze complex problems using various disciplines,” commented Filipa Pires de Almeida, another professor involved in the initiative.
Since the beginning of the initiative last year, over 150 students from all over Portugal have participated in these courses, and their enthusiasm and feedback reinforce the university’s commitment to continue with its further development. “I have learned that everything in nature is interconnected, like the human body, working in complete harmony. And above all, young people demand change and the rise of a better future,” said Fabiano Sacanumba Sacalucango, a first-course student.
For the institution’s Rector, Isabel Capeloa Gil, this initiative exemplifies “the university’s mission and reinforces the commitment to the?. Innovation and social responsibility are at the service of the community in a project that brings together the knowledge of several schools and academics.” In its ongoing Agenda for Sustainability, UCP is responsible for implementing measures and strategies geared towards the common good, creating prosperous, healthy, supportive, diversified, and resilient communities.
