Sustainable education

Sustainable Education aims to strengthen and enlarge the sustainable development education at UM, and it wants to provide an overview for everyone who is interested in topics of sustainability. The project team is positioned at the heart of the academic community, and acts as a facilitator within the UM’s sustainability initiative.

Read more about:

  • The topic sustainable development in courses and programmes at UM (see below)

  • Minor Sustainability - click here

  • Sustainability grant for course/module development - click here

  • SDG Seminar Series - click here

  • Student Projects - click here

  • Education Liaisons - click here

  • Strengthening competencies for sustainable development at UM - click here

The topic sustainable development in courses and programmes at UM 

UM's aim is to integrate sustainable development in all programmes. Each educational program incorporates sustainable development (competencies) into the core curricula in a way that is appropriate and relevant to the programme. This is done by finding faculties' unique perspectives and ways to add value to contribute to a sustainable world.

sustainable education

Project owner sustainable education:
Ron Cörvers
Scientific director of MSI, Maastricht University
 r.corvers[at]maastrichtuniversity[dot]nl

Project coordinator sustainable education:
Ceren Pekdemir
Assistant Professor at MSI, Maastricht University
 ceren.pekdemir[at]maastrichtuniversity[dot]nl

Since the project team has started taking count of courses which integrate the topic of sustainability, sustainable development, and/or the Sustainable Development Goals into their course descriptions in 2018-2019, the number of courses has increased substantially. Since then, the count has gone up from 9 to more than 43 Bachelor level courses, and from 17 to more than 26 Master level courses. For an overview of the courses and programmes on various levels, please see the lists below.

Bachelor's

Master's

Full time programmes

Minor & Specialisation tracks

Sustainability Grant for Education

One of the key aims of the strategy on sustainability at UM is to integrate sustainability into all educational programmes. The sustainability grant for education aims to integrate sustainability further into the various core course curricula at UM by providing teachers with the time to (re)develop educational modules to integrate the topic of sustainability and/or sustainable development competencies into the course. 

At this moment, applications are closed. Three projects have been awarded with a grant. A new round will be announced in the new academic year.

Read the following press release to learn which projects have been awarded with a grant.

For any further questions or inquiries, you can contact Ceren Pekdemir.

SDG Seminar series on professionals in sustainable development

Together with Green Office we organise regular seminars in which professionals in the sustainability field share their successes and struggles. This is your chance to learn from their experience and to ask your questions! These SDG seminars are intended to approach sustainability issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. 

2022

Click here to rewatch a former recorded seminar on Transformative Change online

Student projects

Beyond the courses specifically incorporating sustainability in the course content, the topic of sustainable development can also be integrated in student projects within a course. For example, UM offers several honours programmes in which you can work on a sustainability project for a real client such as PREMIUM and MaRBLe. Or you can write your thesis on a subject related to sustainaibility. If you need help or would like to brainstorm together with the team of Sustainable UM2030 on further integrating sustainability into educational projects you may contact us.

Education Liaisons SUM2030

In November 2021, the Sustainable Education project team kicked-off its first Education Liaisons meeting. This collaboration with liaisons from the various faculties has been initiated to:

  • deepen the embedding of sustainability in education across faculty programmes;
  • share information and news concerning sustainable education with the project team and the faculties;
  • identify and stimulate relevant faculty projects;
  • seek intra-faculty collaboration where possible;
  • share best practices but also challenges;
  • involve UM faculties and centers in the UM-wide SUM2030 educational projects.

For this year, one major joint activity will be a symposium on integrating sustainable development further into curricula across all faculties at UM.

Strengthening competencies for sustainable development at UM

Within the international discourse on education for sustainable development, there is large agreement on key competencies. Thanks to UM's problem-based teaching method, a number of these skills are already amply covered, such as (integrated) problem solving, cooperation and critical thinking. It encourages students to work together in a critical and interdisciplinary way to solve problems. These competences are also recognised in UNESCO's skills in education for sustainability (see for example chapter 2 of Issues and Trends in Education for Sustainable Development).

Some competencies can be complemented or strengthened to enable students to think and act in a sustainable way. In the past years, the Global Citizenship project actively engages in the topic of incorporating global citizenship skills into the educational offerings across the faculty programmes,  and within the minor Sustainability new courses have been developed on sustainable development competencies.

There are also courses and short trainings available for staff members via GoodHabitz, for instance on the topic of what it means to be really ‘green’ with various practical tips to be eco-friendly at work and at home.

Read more about our work

 A little peek behind the scenes of the development of the sustainability minor - spring 2020