Conference Programme

Draft Programme COPERNICUS Alliance Conference 2015

November 24th 2015 at Caixa Forum, Madrid, Spain

9.00 - 9.30 Registration

9.30 – 10:00 Welcome by

  • Clemens Mader. President of the COPERNICUS Alliance.
  • Fernando Galvan. President of the CRUE Sustainability Commission.

10.00 - 11.30 Partnerships to enable global and local learning for sustainability in Higher Education

  • Mahesh Pradhan. Chief, Environmental Education and Training Unit Division of Environmental Policy at United Nations Environment Programme – The Global University Partnership for Environment and Sustainability.
  • Fernando Galvan. President of the CRUE Sustainability Commission & Rector of the University of Alcala de Henares.
  • Dzulkifli Abdul Razak. President of the International Association of Universities.
  • Daniella Tilbury. University Educators for Sustainable Development (UE4SD) Project Director and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gibraltar.
  • Moderation: Jana Dlouha. Vice-President of COPERNICUS Alliance.

11:30 - 12.00 Coffee break

12.00 - 13.30 Keynotes & Panel Discussion: Sustainability Assessment of Higher Education Institutions

  • Rodrigo Lozano.  Assistant Professor, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University & Associate Editor, Journal of Cleaner Production.
  • Miguel Angel Galindo Martí.  Director The National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain ANECA.
  • Peter Glavic. University of Maribor.
  • Fuensanta Garcia (CRUE Sustainability Commission). Member of the research group on Evaluation Platform for the Sustainability of Spanish Universities.
  • Moderation: Alex Ryan. Director of Sustainability, University of Gloucestershire.

13.30 - 14.30 Lunch

14.30 – 15.45 Parallel Session 1

Session A: Whole institution approaches of assessing sustainability in higher education 

  1. Miriam Minderman (Sustainable Development Initiative), Netherlands -
    Towards transformative assessment of higher education for sustainable development
  2. Sara Rymenams (University Colleges Leuven-Limburg) and Wim Labrechts (University of Antwerp), Belgium -
    Assessing sustainability in the university with the AISHE 2.0 instrument: towards a holistic approach?
  3. Alan AtKisson, AtKisson (Group/Uppsala University), Sweden; Dana Kapitulčinová (Charles University in Prague) Czech Republic; Markus Will (University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz), Germany and  Joanne Perdue (University of Calgary), Canada -
    CompassU as a toolset to evaluate and accelerate sustainability practice at HEIs
  4. Alonso Gil-Casares and Ignacio Maroto (ISEAD Business School) -
    PRME Iberian Chapter: PRME Indicators Project 

Session B: Innovative teaching and learning for sustainable development

  1. Oscar Marcos and Jordi Serra (University of Barcelona), Spain -
    Service learning as a key support tool for the University of Barcelona Sustainability Action Plan
  2. Petra Biberhofer and Christian Rammel (Vienna University of Economics and Business), Austria -
    Transdisciplinary learning and teaching as answers to urban sustainability challenges
  3. Christine Willmore (University of Bristol), United Kingdom -
    City Student sustainability engagement as a locale for developing intercultural competences
  4. Joop de Kraker, (Open Universiteit, Maastricht University) & Ron Cövers and Astrid Offermans, (Maastricht University), Netherlands -
    The role of student diversity in competence-based Higher Education for Sustainable Development
  5. Miren Onaindia, Ibone Amatzaga and Jasone Unzueta (University of the Basque Country), Spain -
    Postgraduate degree on Environment and Sustainability, a public-private collaboration for a more sustainable life style
  6. Angels Ull, (Valencia University), Spain -
    Sustainability at the University of Valencia. Study of the inclusion of competences for sustainability in university degrees

15.45 – 16.15 Coffee Break 

16.15 – 17.15 Parallel Session II

Session C: Assessing and evaluating sustainability education 

1. Jean-Christophe Carteron, (Kedge Business School), France -
The Sustainability Literacy Test: Can Universities be sure they are producing sustainability literate graduates?

2. Kerstin Sonesson and Birgitta Nordénm (Malmö University), Sweden -
Assessing international teacher students' knowledge on environmental and sustainability challenges through a literature seminar

3. David Alba and Javier Benayas (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), José Gutiérrez (Universidad de Granada), Spain -
The evaluation of university sustainability programs in Spain: challenges and opportunities

4. Jordi Segalás (Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya), Aitxiber Zallo and Iratxe Amiano (University of the Basque Country), Gemma Tejedor (Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya), Spain -
Backcasting for sustainability in higher education. Assessing Sustainability Education Visions. Seminar at the University of the Basque Country

Session D: Sustainability processes at universities

1. Anne Zimmermann, Helen Plüss, Karl Herweg, Lilian Trechsel, Lara Lundsgaard-Hansen and Doris Wastl-Walter (University of Bern), Switzerland -
A successful way of anchoring Sustainable Development in tertiary education? Experience garnered at the University of Bern, Switzerland

2. Gisela Cebrián (Camilo José Cela University), Spain -
Taking action to create more sustainable universities: a case at the University of Southampton

3. Claudia T. Schmitt and Alexander Bassen, (Universität Hamburg), Germany -
Processes towards generating a sustainable university: example of an applied whole institution approach to support an integrated system transformation

4. Jesús Rodríguez-Pomeda, Flor Sánchez, Leyla Angélica Sandoval and Fernando Casani (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Spain -
Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility of University Students – A Transcultural Study

5. Mª Jose Bautista-Cerro & Mª Angeles Murga-Meroyo (Unesco Chair in Environmental Education & Sustainable Development), Spain -
Curricular sustainability at the UNED. Study for the inclusion of the principles and values of sustainable development in the university degrees.

17.15 – 18.15 Interactive Session 

18.15 – 18.30 Summary of parallel sessions and closing words