Date : December 01, 2023
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, driven by its vision to provide “Education for Life and Education for Living” has always believed that this vision could be effectively comprehended by the inclusion of Sustainability education in curriculum of all programs that is inline with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
Amrita believes in addressing the urgent global challenges by bringing in “Compassion” in our activities as this links to the broader ethos of the SDG’s as a whole.
It has been a decade long journey for Amrita in the arena of bringing Sustainable Development Goals into the Teaching and Learning segment. This had initially started with Amrita’s Chancellors address at the United Nations Academic Impact on Technology for Sustainable Development on July 8, 2015, New York. (Read More – https://www.amritapuri.org/36657/15-impact.aum)
Over the years AMRITA (Awareness Must Result in Taking Action) as stated by Ramu Damodaran (Former Chief of United Nations Academic Impact) had taken the measures to integrate sustainability across courses and initiatives within the University.
Amrita has introduced numerous additions to its curriculum and initiatives to empower faculty and students to become leaders in sustainability and contribute effectively to building a sustainable future.
Over the past decade Amrita’s approach has ensured that Education for Sustainability has remained as an integral part of the design and development of its 4000+ courses spread across 300+ programs. This has resulted in the creation of 400,000+ sustainability champions who have graduated from the university.
Sustainability for Education global pathway was devised by Amrita thru the following :
Amrita University’s UNESCO Chair for “Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development was first awarded in 2020 and this has been renewed in 2024. Through this Chair, the university will develop a comprehensive framework for academic engagement to build sustainable communities by designing a curriculum based on experiential learning.
Formed under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development, SustIN aims to enhance institutional capacities and foster regional collaborations that will accelerate collective efforts to achieve and promote sustainable development, innovative learning, and knowledge-sharing.
Amrita School for Sustainable Futures (ASF)
The school has introduced core sustainability courses such as Conceptual Foundations of Sustainable Development and Perspectives on Sustainable Development that provides an essential theoretical foundation while guiding students to apply their knowledge in community-oriented projects. The curriculum across the School for Sustainable Futures increasingly reflects a commitment to sustainability, as all course syllabi are also oriented toward practical, community-focused applications of sustainable development principles.
Offering Sustainability Courses across disciplines
Comprehensive courses on sustainable development and climate action have been integrated across the academic programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The mandatory courses will cover essential sustainability areas such as foundational courses in sustainable development, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) literacy, and applied sustainability. These courses are embedded as mandatory credits within a designated semester across diverse disciplines, including Engineering, Social Sciences, Business, Biotechnology, and Medicine.
Global Curriculum on Sustainable Development
The UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development has developed a global curriculum on sustainable development with a special emphasis on experiential learning through robust community engagement initiatives. This curriculum is the result of extensive collaboration and consultations with various Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the globe, involving deliberations on numerous thematic areas. Through extensive deliberations, with 300+ experts from 80 HEIs across 20 disciplines, the devised global curriculum spans multiple thematic areas.
Sustainability as the foundation of Experiential Learning
University’s flagship program, Live-in-Labs®, serves as the cornerstone for implementing the multidisciplinary curriculum on Sustainable Development . It is offered as undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programs, ensuring a continuum of experiential learning experiences. The curriculum equips the participants with the necessary skills and values to develop and deploy sustainable solutions in rural settings to solve developmental challenges.
Future plans
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