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Article
Publication date: 31 July 2019

Katriina Soini, Kaisa Korhonen-Kurki and Henna Asikainen

The purpose of this study is to explore the learning outcomes of the project-based learning in a Master Class programme on sustainability carried out in collaboration by the…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the learning outcomes of the project-based learning in a Master Class programme on sustainability carried out in collaboration by the University of Helsinki and a private company operating in global mining technology. The following two questions were addressed: Q1. What kind of sustainability competences do participants acquire in the Master Class? Q2. What is the role of PBL in the learning outcomes?

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on an ex ante open-ended survey and post-ante interviews addressed to the participants. The data were analysed using the qualitative content analysis.

Findings

The findings show that the Master Class contributed to most of the competences under study. However, unlike in previous studies, systemic thinking is highlighted as a fundamental rather than a parallel core competence. Furthermore, the results also emphasise the role of emotions, which is insufficiently acknowledged and accounted for in sustainability education.

Research limitations/implications

The study focussed only on the learning outcomes of the participants (students) and not the other parties (such as company and researchers).

Practical implications

Future research should focus on affective dimension as a stepping stone to the transformational learning. In addition, the role of the systemic understanding in sustainability education should be highlighted as a core competence.

Social implications

The study revealed the overall positive impacts of the co-creation in university – business collaboration to the participants’ sustainability competences.

Originality/value

The study presents an empirical case study where the various competence frameworks were applied with a result of confirming the validity of the existing key competences, in particular the systemic understanding and showing the role of the affective dimension in the transactional learning.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 17 December 2024

Jeffrey Demaine, Yash Bhatia and Kate Whalen

Achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires partnerships across nations, sectors and stakeholders. In academia, interdisciplinary research can help…

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Abstract

Purpose

Achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires partnerships across nations, sectors and stakeholders. In academia, interdisciplinary research can help to address complex challenges related to the Goals. This paper aims to offer a structured approach to identifying current and potential research collaborations across faculties at a Canadian university.

Design/methodology/approach

Publications from the Dimensions database that had been assigned to an SDG category were matched against publications indexed by the university’s Research Information Management System (RIMS). The resulting matches were then sorted and tabulated by Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification research category and by the faculty affiliation of the authors. Potential interdisciplinary research collaborations are then identified by matching authors from different faculties who both have publications within the same research category.

Findings

Findings demonstrate that institutions can apply this methodology to track SDG-related publications, to analyse current interdisciplinary publications and to identify potential interdisciplinary collaborations. Since 2018, 95% of McMaster University’s SDG-related publications are authored by a researcher or researchers from a single faculty, and 5% are authored by researchers from two or more faculties. The interdisciplinary research collaborations were found to have a lower average citation impact and alternative metric scores than those publications with authors from a single faculty. Using a test case, 28 researchers from two faculties were identified as having common research interests with the potential to collaborate on a specific sustainability-related topic. Leveraging this methodology and an institution’s RIMS system provides university leaders with insight to track progress and plan research activities across the institution.

Originality/value

The analysis methods followed in this study highlight the importance of interdisciplinary research collaborations and may be valuable to institutions wanting to benchmark their own SDG efforts. Moreover, a simple methodology is presented for re-combining the data on prior collaborations to identify opportunities for new collaborations between faculties. This process combines the power of data processing with the user’s contextual insights to uncover novel pairings of faculty members whose research is aligned.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

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