How can university students' awareness about sustainability be increased?

The participants were a mixture of students, teachers, educational developers, researchers and managers, representing engineering, medical, and teacher education at the four universities. As a preparation for the event, everyone had been assigned two academic papers to read and consider.

Associate Professor Anders Rosén, KTH, at the workshop. Photo: Karin Persson

The content of the papers served as a foundation for interdisciplinary group discussions and, subsequently, conclusions in plenary. Professor Chu-Nu Chang Rundgren from Stockholm University's Department of Education moderated the event, along with Matti Nikkola from Karolinska Institutet and Anders Rosén from KTH. 

An honour to participate

“This workshop is really interesting and also quite difficult”, said Rin Miyajima, a student from the University of Tokyo who is currently doing an exchange semester within Child and Youth Studies at Stockholm University. “It is amazing to be able to discuss these matters with the teachers and professors and I am very honoured to be a part of this.”

Arisa Yamada and Rin Miyajima. Photo: Karin Persson

Fellow workshop participant and master’s student Arisa Yamada agreed. She is on leave of absence from the University of Tokyo to study Stockholm University’s Master’s Programme in Education with International and Comparative specialization.

“When I was contacted by the administrator at the University of Tokyo regarding this workshop, I immediately wanted to join. Education for sustainable development is such an important topic and it is great that different academic backgrounds are represented here.” 

Student participants from Japan, Singapore and Indonesia. Photo: Karin Persson

“The topics discussed ranged from the slightly philosophical question of what sustainability really means, to more practical hands-on questions about how learning about the urgency of sustainability can be integrated into existing curriculums”, Niklas Tranæus, Stockholm University's administrative coordinator for the Stockholm Trio and University of Tokyo partnership, added.

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