University Educators for Sustainable Development (UE4SD) is a CA project that brings together 55 partners (mainly universities) from 33 countries across Europe and beyond to rethink the higher education curriculum to address sustainable development. The 3 year-project, funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme - Erasmus Academic Networks, commenced in October 2013 and will seek to innovate academic practice and curriculum by creating opportunities for university educators to develop professional competences and the academic leadership capabilities linked to ESD.
UE4SD activities are closely associated with the Alliance and the “Rio+20 Treaty on Higher Education” which was launched at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The University of Gloucestershire is leading the project as well as co-ordinating one of four regional hubs across the partnership, working closely with the other regional hubs co-ordinated at the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain, Charles University in Czech Republic and Leuphana University of Lüneburg in Germany.
From February to March, four project regional meetings were organised in each regional hub and gathered partners from each region. The purpose of these meetings was to share management and administration issues as well as discuss the first phase of the project which involves each member country mapping its existing professional development opportunities for university educators. Project partners will map national and institutional initiatives, schemes and activities in this area. This data will inform four regional reports and one state of the art report which will be shared the 2014 CA Conference.