Increasing the visibility of sustainable development policy at Uzhhorod National University through participation in the Baltic University Programme (BUP)
Since 2014, on the fourth Wednesday of October, the world has celebrated Sustainable Development Day to remind society of the importance of caring for the environment and the steps that are needed to do so.
Sustainable Development Day gives the world an opportunity to learn more about this topic and come together to find out what we can do to promote sustainable development. Indeed, we can do a lot if we know what to do and have the will to change!
At Uzhhorod National University, events dedicated to sustainable development have been held for more than 14 years and not only in October, because there are relevant centres and departments, teachers and students who are aware of the importance of this topic. In particular, among the latter, two are worthy of note, which are related to UzhNU's participation in the Baltic University Programme.
From 7 to 9 October 2024, a meeting of representatives of international relations departments took place in Ostrava. Uzhhorod National University was represented by Svitlana Delehan. As part of the chairmanship of the Baltic University Programme (BUP) in the Czech Republic, in cooperation with the University of Ostrava, the event brought together 50 representatives of the universities participating in the programme. Over the course of two days, the participants took part in a series of workshops, lectures and networking events aimed at discussing the experience of international cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.
The main goal of the event was to discuss effective cooperation on internationalisation strategies of BUP member universities, as well as funding opportunities for joint events and initiatives. In addition, special attention was paid to the exchange of experience in participating in BUP and other similar networks, as well as the development of specific measures to strengthen cooperation, communication and promotion at various levels. Opportunities for Uzhhorod National University from BUP:
1. Exchanges at BUP member universities
BUP is committed to offering ways of improvement to its member universities. As part of this work, BUP facilitates exchanges within the Programme. These can be, for example, student exchanges, digital internships, research exchanges or teacher exchanges. The goal is to connect colleagues who want to offer and participate in exchanges. Read more about the initiative on the website.
2. BUP course platform
One of the key missions of BUP is to create courses in various academic disciplines, both theoretical and practical. The peculiarity of BUP courses is that they are created in the format of free massive open online courses and are unique in that they focus on sustainability issues in the context of the Baltic Sea region. The BUP Course Platform offers new courses created by colleagues from participating universities.All courses on the BUP Course Platform are available for free.
3. BUP learning materials bank
The Learning Bank is intended to provide colleagues from BUP member universities with the opportunity to download and use a wide range of materials when developing courses at their universities. Register to use the BUP Learning Materials Bank.
At the same time, Associate Professor of the Faculty of History and International Relations, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development Hanna Melehanych participated in a workshop for teachers in Turku, Finland. This workshop is a part of the general training course ‘Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education’, which began in September this year and will end in March next year. Hanna Melehanych was selected after a competitive selection process along with 24 other participants from 10 countries. The course includes basic facts about sustainable development, with an emphasis on ESD and teaching methodologies, including e-learning, peer-to-peer learning and individual project work. During the working meeting, representatives of different countries discussed common challenges in implementing the idea of education for sustainable development, integrating the 17 Sustainable Development Goals into the educational process, and discussed projects of changes at their universities. In particular, UzhNU will soon offer its teachers to join a crash course on the concept of sustainable development.
For more information about BUP, please visit the annual reports website, as well as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. If you are interested in learning more about or contributing to events, please contact BUP at info@balticuniv.uu.se.
