Anna Maria Geli de Ciurana

Education for sustainability in university studies

Purpose – To report on a project involving European and Latin American universities, focusing on curriculum greening.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the experiences gained in connection with the “ACES Project” which is a model of the implementation of sustainability principles in higher education, with a special emphasis on curriculum greening. This paper presents the principles and main results of the project, which involved 11 European and Latin American universities, with financial support from the ALFA programme of the European Commission.Findings – The paper identifies ten characteristics of the initial model of curriculum greening which were validated in the process and were interpreted in the paper.Research limitations/implications – The type of action‐oriented research carried out in the context of the ACES Project, by means of cooperative efforts and the accumulation of diverse fields of knowledge, presented working difficulties which are different from those experienced by more...

Education for sustainability in university studies: a model for reorienting the curriculum

A decisive factor for achieving a culture of sustainability is university training for future professionals. The aim of this article is to bring new elements to the process of reorienting university studies towards sustainability. Presented here is the ACES model (Curriculum Greening of Higher Education, acronym in Spanish), which is the result of a project involving a network of 11 European and Latin American universities. The methodology of the project is based on participatory action research. The ACES model is defined by 10 characteristics, detailed in this article, which can orientate a diagnosis of the level of curriculum greening and the design and application of the strategies and actions in order to facilitate incorporating the sustainability dimension in higher education. The potentialities and limitations found are also discussed. The ACES model has started a process for reorienting higher education studies towards sustainability.