Sustainability competences in Catalan University degrees
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Abstract
Considering that higher education should play a vital role in promoting peace, mutual understanding and tolerance, and in creating mutual confidence among peoples and nations; (Lisbon Convention 1997) the Technological Catalonian Universities have undertaken as a framework the Competences for Sustainability, to develop the new degrees in accordance with the Bologna Declaration of 1999. This way the degree courses planning has three essential elements (Cordoba et. Al., 2007): a centered learning in students, the competence-based objective achievement and the planning, evaluation and monitoring of any all teaching activity under the ECTS criteria. The triplet activities-learning-assessment is involved in each and every subject that corresponds to the plan studies. In this way, education by competences is framed in all the subjects developed during the studies, also assumed for the competence in sustainability. During the planning and development of the new degrees offered in higher education different questions arose: which competences in sustainability should have the university graduate students to be capable of satisfying todays societys demands? And, what kind of engineer and architect does the actual society need in terms of Sustainable Development? Taking this into account, the definition and development of the competence in sustainability at the Catalonians universities has been developed in different ways in each of the educational programs. Since this has occurred, the interdisciplinary educational research group of EDUSOST of Barcelona has developed a research analyzing to which extent these differences impact in the ease to develop sustainability as a competence in each of the degrees without disturbing the other competences. On the other hand, it allowed analyzing to what extent different knowledge areas focused in which component of sustainability, technical degrees developed much easier the in the environmental component and administration and political science the social one for example.