Why?

Why should you integrate Sustainability in your CBL course?

As societal challenges (including Climate Change, biodiversity loss, raising social inequalities) continue to shape our present and future, equipping students with the right competences and tools to address these challenges is more important than ever. Integrating Sustainability in Education means engaging with teaching and learning approaches that include social, environmental and economic components, and emphasizing the balance between them. Sustainability in education also means orienting curricula toward Grand Societal Challenges*, including Sustainability challenges, which go beyond techno-fix solutions. Challenge-Based Learning offers a complete framework for education that is socially engaged, fosters student development and self-awareness, and equips them to tackle real-world problems effectively. 

The collaborative nature of CBL, involving stakeholders from academia, industry, and society, mirrors the interconnectedness and interdisciplinarity of sustainability issues, making learning more relevant. 

Building on this approach, TU/e Sustainability Office has developed a vision on education which aligns with our intentions through this Toolkit:

“TU/e offers inter- and transdisciplinary, engineering education that is transformative, holistic, and socially engaged. TU/e trains student to become future change agents.

Transformative education enables students to reflect on and foster change in established practices and institutions from the perspective of environmental and social responsibility, enabling them to become agents of change and teaching them competences to tackle the complex societal challenges towards a sustainable society.” Read more about the vision of Sustainable and Transformative education here.