EAUC has endorsed the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative for Rio+20, and is clearly pleased at being asked:
The EAUC is delighted to announce that it has joined a number of other international organisations to officially endorse the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative for Rio+20. As part of Rio+20, leaders of the international academic community are being called upon to commit to the development of sustainable practices for Higher Education Institutions. In line with the EAUC's rising international profile and as a result of our continued international collaboration with other tertiary education sector bodies around the world, the EAUC was invited and has agreed to officially endorse the declaration below
“As Chancellors, Presidents, Rectors, Deans and Leaders of Higher Education Institutions and related organizations, we acknowledge the responsibility that we bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development. On the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro from 20-22 June 2012, we agree to support the following actions:
- Teach sustainable development concepts …
- Encourage research on sustainable development issues …
- Green our campuses …
- Support sustainability efforts …
- Engage with and share results through international frameworks …
I posted the whole thing last week and noted that there were many things listed which universities already do – and ought to do, for example, [2], [3], [4] and [5]. But I thought that [1] was quite another matter entirely. This is its full version …
1] Teach sustainable development concepts, ensuring that they form a part of the core curriculum across all disciplines so that future higher education graduates develop skills necessary to enter sustainable development workforces and have an explicit understanding of how to achieve a society that values people, the planet and profits in a manner that respects the finite resource boundaries of the earth. Higher Education Institutions are also encouraged to provide sustainability training to professionals and practitioners;
The first part of this is reasonable enough:
“Teach sustainable development concepts, ensuring that they form a part of the core curriculum across all disciplines so that future higher education graduates develop skills necessary to enter sustainable development workforces …”
... though I did wonder what a sustainable development workforce was – those working in a green economy, perhaps – and the so that seems a bit instrumental. However, it’s the next few words that are the real problem:
“… and have an explicit understanding of how to achieve a society that values people, the planet and profits in a manner that respects the finite resource boundaries of the earth. …”
Given that [i] no one has this understanding (though many have a political theory or two that they think helps), and [ii] not everyone would see it as the job of a university to do this sort of thing anyway, it's hard to see the sense of putting this in text that Vice Chancellors are expected to sign up to. It’s been suggested to me that all this is just poorly drafted, but I’m not convinced. Rather, I think it’s probably rather carefully written and represents wishful thinking.
Question is: what should it say? But that's for another day.
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