Integration of sustainable development goals into the educational process was discussed at UzhNU
On Wednesday, 5 March, a scientific and practical seminar ‘Integration of Sustainable Development Goals into the Educational Process of UzhNU’ was held. The event was held within the framework of the ‘Week of Action and Awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals’, which was announced by the Global Coalition of Universities in partnership with the State University of New York.
The event was moderated by Hanna Melehanych, Director of the Resource Centre for Sustainable Development of UzhNU, Associate Professor of the Department of International Studies and Public Communications of the Faculty of History and International Relations: ‘Today's seminar is dedicated to the completion of a training course on the basics of the concept of sustainable development for UzhNU faculty and staff. At the same time, the event can be called an annual one for UzhNU, as last year we joined the Global Coalition of Universities and held a similar meeting. The Global Coalition of Universities helps to promote the UN Sustainable Development Goals in partnership with higher education institutions around the world and holds a week of awareness raising on this topic every March. Today, we have been joined by everyone who is interested in the topic of sustainable development. I am sincerely grateful to all my colleagues who agreed to share their experience of integrating sustainable development goals or their individual components into curricula and courses. It is interesting that the presentations cover different specialities, so everyone will be able to hear something new for themselves.’
Prof. Hennadii Slabkyi, guarantor of the educational programme, Head of the Department of Public Health, presented the report ‘Scientific work of postgraduate students in the speciality of public health to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals’. Hennadiy Slabkyi emphasised the main goals of sustainable development, which are in line with the topics of postgraduate students' research, namely, “Goal 3: Good health”; ensuring a healthy lifestyle and promoting well-being for all at all ages and “Goal 11: Sustainable development of cities and communities”; ensuring openness, safety, viability and environmental sustainability of cities and human settlements. He also outlined the main research methods and research results at the state level.
Vitalii Andreyko, Dean of the School of History and International Relations, shared with the seminar participants a report on the modernisation of the School's educational programmes in the digital context and the introduction of inclusive and green competences based on the best practices and policy recommendations of the EU. ‘In 2023, two teams of UzhNU specialists received funding for projects aimed at developing the potential of higher education in Ukraine, improving digitalisation, sustainability and inclusiveness within the Erasmus+ C2 programme. Among the winners is the team from the Faculty of History and International Relations with the project ‘Rethinking Higher Education in a Digital Context and Integrating a Common Inclusive and Ecological Framework Based on EU Best Practices and Policy Recommendations,’ Vitalii Andreyko said. The report also described the visit of the working group members to Georgia, a focus group study to obtain information from stakeholders to identify gaps in the curricula and plans of Ukrainian higher education institutions in terms of digital transformation, sustainable development and inclusiveness, and a seminar on ‘Peculiarities of implementing digitalisation, inclusion and greening in higher education in Ukraine’.
Ruslana Kryvenkova, Associate Professor of the Department of Tourism, spoke about managerial innovations in shaping sustainable tourism development: ‘The topic of introducing managerial innovations in the tourism and recreation industry is particularly relevant for research, in particular for our country, whose tourism industry is currently suffering great losses and destruction. In our opinion, ‘managerial innovations’ are a set of innovative strategies, methods and approaches in the management of the tourism and recreation industry in order to improve the efficiency of developing competitive advantages and achieving strategic goals. We have formulated 2 main aspects of management innovations: information technology innovations and organisational management innovations,’ - said the speaker.
Other speakers at the seminar included Anna Zinchenko, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Germanic Philology at Sumy State University, who spoke about updating the discipline within the framework of education for sustainable development, and Antonina Bulyna, who presented her report on English and English-language fiction as a tool for raising awareness of the SDGs.
The event ended with a practical part, where participants could communicate more closely, get to know each other and reflect on the main components of the educational and scientific process at UzhNU and how they are related to the achievement of the sustainable development goals.
