IAU – International Association of Universities

New online interactive portal on Higher Education and Sustainable Development (HESD).

IAU is pleased to announce the release of its online interactive portal on Higher Education and Sustainable Development (HESD)Presented last November, during the 14th IAU General Conference on Higher Education and the Global Agenda – Alternative Pathways to the Future, Puerto-Rico.

The portal is available online here: www.iau-hesd.net/en

2013 and 2014 are and will be marked by a series of events to feed into the end of the 2005-2014 UN decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD).  Since its beginning, many universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) have brought sustainability into their academic programmes, administration and other activities. To showcase the wealth of activities developed so far and to enable other HEIs to develop similar or other innovative approaches to HESD, the IAU Task Force on HESD has mandated the IAU ESD Team to develop an interactive portal presenting what is done by HEIs from around the world. 

So far, the portal has mainly been fed through desk top research and thanks to information provided by some Member Institutions.  IAU hopes to have done justice to the initiatives listed but count on your reviews and constructive comments and remarks to improve the various rubrics and as well the information provided for your institution.  That will be the best way to ensure that information on activities developed so far and being developed still is accurate and up-to-date. 

In light of the above, we invite you or the person in charge of sustainable development matters to do the following:

1. Navigate the portal and provide us with your feedback and comments on any aspect;
2. Please provide us with information on the various activities and actions developed by your institution to promote sustainable development, using the questionnaire below, so that we can upload these on the Portal and make bring them to the attention of the Global Education Community;
3. Provide us with the contact details of the person in charge of ESD initiatives at your institution (if such a person is appointed) for future reference. 

The portal is being presented at different events organized by the IAU and its Members and by UNESCO in the context of the UN-DESD. The Portal Content will act as gauge indicating the involvement of higher education in the process and adherence to the principles. The Content will be presented at the IAU 2014 International Conference on Blending Higher Education, Sustainable Development and Indigenous Knowledge, to take place in Iquitos, Peru, March 19-21 2014 and the Conclusions and Recommendations of the Conference will be presented at and will feed into the 2014 UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development – Learning Today for a Sustainable Future (Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, 10-12 November 2014).