Sustainability in Advanced Education

(Duurzaam Hoger Onderwijs, DHO)

‘Every effort should be made to incorporate sustainable development into the various higher education programmes, so that graduates can build up their professional practice there as policy makers, managers, researchers, teachers and professionals.’ These are the words of the COPERNICUS University Charter for Sustainable Development. This statement is from the COPERNICUS University Charter for Sustainable Development, which was signed by fourteen Dutch universities.

The Dutch colleges and academies have the same goal as that laid down in the Charter for Sustainable Development. Many institutions are working on the integration of sustainable development in advanced education, often with the support of coordinators and instructors in sustainable development. This subject has become a hot issue in recent years. In 1998 a network for sustainability in advanced education was set up: the national network for Sustainability in Advanced Education (Duurzaam Hoger Onderwijs / DHO network; http://www.DHO.nl/. Almost all Dutch educational initiatives having to do with sustainable development are represented in this network. Teachers, students and researchers work together to exchange information and develop new knowledge for sustainability in advanced education.

The workgroup for the Disciplinary Exploration of Sustainable Development (Disciplinaire Verdieping Duurzame Ontwikkeling; DVDO), which is part of HDO, has devoted itself to stimulating, equipping and activating teachers to integrate sustainable development into their curricula. This is taking place by means of projects such as the publication of a series of trade reviews on sustainable development. The workgroup hopes to explain how teachers, with the help of trade reviews, can introduce sustainable development into their teaching within their own disciplines.

In cooperation with the DVDO/Fashion workgroup (coordination: Tine Luyt, director of Fashion, Design & Strategy Arnhem, ArtEZ) the decision was made to develop a trade review and website for the Fashion and Textile programme (especially the textile programme with regard to fashion). This trade review, ‘Modebewust?’ (Fashion Conscious?), provides a broad overview of what is taking place in fashion and fashion education as far as CSR is concerned and does not pretend to be exhaustive. Its aim is to stimulate exchange and the development of teaching material.

Integrating CSR or sustainability into the school curricula is a complex affair. It is relevant to many of the subject being taught in fashion programmes: marketing design, trends, purchasing, merchandising, knowledge of materials, consumer behaviour, shop management, etc. The question that automatically arises is: how is it done? Do we inject a little into every subject or create a separate CSR unit? CSR is a relatively new subject, and good teaching material does not yet exist. How can schools obtain relevant information on CSR? It seems that many teachers are still searching the Internet for relevant material. Guest instructors are also being invited to talk about CSR and fashion.