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Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education pp 115–131Cite as

Identifying Relevant Versus Received Sustainability Education at Industrial Engineering and Management Programs

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Abstract

Implementing and evaluating sustainable development in higher education poses particular difficulties, as the field remains contested. This paper presents an innovative approach to understanding the current sustainability education at university programs and envisioning its desired future state. This approach is based on the convergence seen in current scientific literature within the field. This study utilized this method on Sweden’s five largest industrial engineering and management programs (covering 74 % of the particular population), involving 111 interviews and resulting in identification of the relevant sustainability content and mapping of the received content at these programs. This paper documents the process-oriented, as supposed to results-oriented, approach used, as well as certain key results and insights. The revealed adoption challenges were structured according to their interconnectedness, allowing points of high leverage to be found for future interventions. This paper is appealing to all who wish to conduct pre-studies to engaging in developing program curricula at larger scale through collaboration between various universities. The paper will outline the process, the key success factors (as identified by the author) and the insights that have a bearing on a broader audience than industrial engineering faculty.

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Acknowledgments

This study was made possible by the warm contributions of over a 100 people from five programs, ten universities and countless departments from all over Sweden. A big thank you to all of you.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Economics and Management, School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Brinellvägen 68, 10044, Stockholm, Sweden

    Niccolas Albiz

Authors
  1. Niccolas Albiz
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Correspondence to Niccolas Albiz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. FTZ-ALS, HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Centre for Environmental Education and Research, University of Malta , Msida, Malta

    Mark Mifsud

  3. Life and Environmental Science, Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom

    Chris Shiel

  4. Geography (Science campus, Florida), University of South Africa , Johannesburg, South Africa

    Rudi Pretorius

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Albiz, N. (2017). Identifying Relevant Versus Received Sustainability Education at Industrial Engineering and Management Programs. In: Leal Filho, W., Mifsud, M., Shiel, C., Pretorius, R. (eds) Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47895-1_8

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