Quality Education and Sustainable Development: What Can Ethiopian HEIs learn from other global Institutions to sustain itself and the planet at large?

Abstract

In an era of dramatic human-induced environmental problems and failing socio-economic and institutional systems, it is widely recognized that higher education has the legal, ethical and moral responsibility to transform itself to become a leading force in catalyzing societal changes for sustainable development (SD) by seriously threatening the well-being of current and future generations. The objective of this paper was to review how HEIs around the world are addressing SD principles and to draw lessons to Ethiopian Universities. Methodologically, the paper is a systematic review of study reports, international agreements, charters and declarations and practical University response case illustrations. Therefore; document analysis (content) of secondary sources that are published in scholarly journals, discussion papers, government working papers, declarations around the world were explored, sorted, classified and merged. Case syntheses show that numerous HEIs sector-specific sustainability agreements, charters and declarations have been created identifying areas which need to be addressed. Despite the action needs to be taken are voluntary and not legally binding, curricula, research, campus operations, community outreach, university collaboration and exchange, educating the educators, embedding SD in to the institutional framework and in daily campus experiences, transdisciplinary , assessment and reporting related issues are commonplace regarding addressing sustainability principles in HEIs. In Ethiopia, despite HEIs are responding to sustainability agenda specially in the area of agriculture, environment and resource management by addressing SD principles, institutional wide policy responses and practices are inadequate across disciples. Therefore; reorienting curricula, exercising progressive pedagogies, developing partnership and quality standards for SD, integrating SD in to research and development at university level, integrating SD in to the qualifications framework and learning outcomes, integrating SD into quality assurance systems are some of the lessons drawn from global experiences to be reconsidered in Ethiopian HEIs contexts.