TED University (TEDU), adhering to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aims to be a sustainability-oriented university with the support of its staff and students. Our endeavour to become a sustainable academic institution, educating future-literate students entails making lasting economic, environmental, and social commitments. We strongly believe that education serves as the core holding all aspects of sustainability and achieving the SDGs.
We will partner with the Sustainable and Resilient Futures Network (SRF), a non-profit network set up by Oxford Brookes University (OBU), learning from their experiences in transforming course curricula based on the SDGs across different disciplines and their use of digitally enhanced educational practices. Sustainability is a key enabler in OBU’s 2035 Strategy, which envisions OBU as a “living laboratory” for implementing sustainability initiatives, including integration of sustainability into curricula. OBU’s living laboratories provide a wealth of real-life case studies that can be introduced and discussed in the classroom, as well as opportunities for staff and students to start their own sustainability initiatives. OBU’s ambition to inextricably integrate sustainability into all its operations and educational offerings will be the basis for our cooperation in the project.
In our effort to emphasise the role of education in the realisation of the SDGs, our project entitled, “Education for A Sustainable and Resilient Future'', is particularly targeted to achieve the aims stated in the UNESCO roadmap document “ESDfor2030”:
Following the guidelines detailed therein, we aim to
- raise awareness about sustainability in higher education settings,
- promote critical and contextualised understanding of the SDGs, and
- mobilise action towards their realisation.
We will contribute to global efforts to raise awareness about sustainability and develop innovative teaching approaches and methods in higher education to equip students with knowledge, skills, and attitudes conducive to a sustainable future.
Thus, the project will, firstly, include activities to raise awareness about sustainability and the SDGs among students, faculty, and staff within and between the partner institutions. Secondly, a course design transformation with SDG integration through effective digital teaching tools and resources will be initiated through a pilot study at TEDU. We will base this pilot study on the outcomes of OBU’s audit of the integration of issues around sustainability, resilience, and SDGs into its programs and modules. OBU’s SRF Network and its recently established Education for Sustainable Development Working Group, to which Dr. Kurul and Prof Gupta belong, will work as the key platforms for sharing best practice between TEDU and OBU. Thirdly, the experience
and knowledge gained therein will be shared with other academic and non-academic stakeholders in Turkey and in the UK as the outcomes of the TEDU pilot study and the OBU audit will yield both best practice examples and pathways to “developing the ‘global graduate’ who can consider different perspectives, approaches challenges with flexible thinking and demonstrates a willingness to challenge stereotypes”.
To create synergy and a mutually beneficial environment in founding a research haven of co-creation and innovation, and to further our mutual aims in promoting sustainability and resilience, both institutions aim to share their experiences concerning change for sustainability and the realisation of the SDGs in Turkey and the UK.
Additionally, we will collaborate with NATURA (Nature and Culture Association) and TEDMEM, two Turkey-based NGOs committed to disseminating knowledge and raising awareness about sustainability for the future as our national partners: Both NGOs will support us in the awareness-raising and community involvement activities of the project as well as dissemination of project results. The project will involve five stages to be completed within the duration of two years.