Transnational meetings

Kick-off Seminar

25 & 26 April 2022

UCL University College in Odense, Denmark

On 25 & 26 April 2022 the Kick-off Seminar for Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership project “Sustainable Competences in Higher Education” was held at UCL University College in Denmark. It was great to be together in Odense, Denmark, after months of working online.

SustainComp, as the Erasmus+ KA-220 project is referred to, has been granted to a project consortium consisting of UCL University College (project coordinator), University of Agder in Norway, Masaryk University in the Czech Republic and University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, and will extend over 30 months from 2022 to 2024.

“Education for Sustainable Development is embedded in the strategic goals for UCL University College, and we are therefore very happy to host the project and proud to collaborate with international university partners on this. Also, we are looking forward to implementing the results for the benefit of teachers and students”, says Charlotte Høy Worm, Director of the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at UCL University College.

The project aims to bridge the gap between sector-divided, discipline-embedded national curricula in education. It addresses the current need for competence-based, integrated, interdisciplinary, and transformative Higher Education that is in congruence with the European Council Erasmus+ program, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 21st Century learning goals. This will positively impact and update the current and new teacher education curricula, learning objectives, digitalisation readiness, transversal skills and effective intercultural communication for students from teacher, nursing, nutrition and environmental education.

The work has started and we are moving ahead!

We are moving ahead with our Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership project “Sustainable Competences in Higher Education”. It was great to be together for our Transnational Meeting no. 2 – onsite/online – at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway, on 2 – 3 June 2022.

The focus of this project meeting was to round off our work with the State-of-the art report, Project Result 1, and start up work with Project Result 2, Curriculum Development.

We would like to thank the Rector of University of Agder, Dr. Sunniva Whittaker, for taking the time to meet with the project group, as well as for her kind words of support and encouragement for the work we are partaking. She expressed that the aims of the project correspond directly with the University of Agder’s strategy regarding their academic culture, their mission, as well as their Interdisciplinary priority areas.

Transnational Meeting 3 occurred in the first week of November 2022 on the campus of Masaryk University (MUNI) in Brno, Czech Republic. The primary focus of the TN Meeting 3 was onsite and real time assessment of the first version of the Teacher Training Module, which occurred in the same week, along with in-depth discussions of curriculum development (PR2) as well as making decisions about the structure and architecture of the online teacher support system (PR7).

In connection with the SustainComp project, a Teacher Training Module (course), PR3, is being developed with Masaryk University as the lead of the PR. As part of the development process, all partners participated with a group of up to 5 lecturers per partner in a trial course of the first version of the module in the first week of November 2022 at MUNI in Brno, CZ. The purpose of the course was to develop and train in relation to the joint design-based-research course: Development of a new curriculum for teaching sustainable development at bachelor level. Bachelor students at MUNI were included in the development process, participating in discussions and workshop activities throughout the trial bringing student voices to the development process.

The work continues after the successful trial.

Midway Erasmus+ project status at Midsummer!

Transnational Meeting 4 on 6 – 7 June 2023 at the University of Ljubljana, in Ljubljana, Slovenia marked midway in Erasmus+ project SustainComp project which runs from 2022 – 2024.  

The SustainComp projects team at the Faculty of Education at the University of Ljubljana hosted the hybrid TN Meeting 4. Thanks to our hosts - Dr. Stojan Kostanjevec, Dr. Francka Lovšin Kozina, Assistant Martina Erjavšek, Assistant Barbara Zaman as well as Sanja Jedrinović and her team from the Center for the use of ICT in pedagogical process at UL – for their support and hospitality.

Heading into the next phase of the SustainComp project, we noted that we had completed 3 of the 7 Project Results by TN Meeting 4, turning our attention to the remaining 4 PR’s. We prepared for the Full-scale pilot of SustainComp curriculum for bachelor students, as well as the Multiplier Events in 2023-24.

• Transnational Meeting 5 – 5 -7 December 2023 at UCL University College in Odense, Denmark

Transnational Meeting 6 – 14 – 16 May 2024 at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic