794
H. L. Koh and S. Y. Teh
3 Sustainability Learning Outcome (SLO)
3.1 Stand-Alone Course-Based SLO
Since the Brundtland 1987 report, it was common for some universities, including USM, to incorporate sustainability elements into stand-alone courses that were
deemed sustainability-related, such as environmental modelling taught by the authors
(Koh 2004) and ENR courses. In the 1990–2005, sustainability had a predominant
skew towards concepts rooted in the ENR. It paid less emphasis on concepts related
to poverty, hunger, health, education, equality and social justice. These universities
in the 1990–2005 did not clearly define its SLOs in its mission statement to highlight
its importance. Clearly, curricula rooted in ENR are rich in examples of sustainability
and sustainability-related courses (Reid and Petocz 2006) and would provide a solid
foundation on which to build SHE. Despite the absence of institutional incentives
and framework, the seminal SHE initiatives in the 1990–2005 to incorporate sustainability elements into curriculum were primarily driven by the individual course
instructors, acting independently. They shared like-minded interests in sustainabilityrelated issues primarily oriented to ENR. The stand-alone ENR-based SLOs were
intuitive, were not explicit and had the tendency to be narrowly confined to ENR.
These stand-alone SLOs had served and delivered good learning experiences to students and educators. They paved the foundations for building university-wide SLOs
in the twenty first century, guided by the seventeen SDG targets listed in the UN
2030 Agenda, which were not even known then. Some case studies and examples
of stand-alone SLO-based research and consultancies undertaken by the authors primarily on ENR will be briefly described in later sections to highlight the daunting
sustainability challenge encountered then and now.
3.2 University-Wide SLO Requirement
It was, however, uncommon for teaching and research universities with multiple
faculties and schools, such as the USM, to mandate a university-wide requirement
in sustainability. In most cases, this mandate is beyond the financial and technical
ability of most universities. UVM adopted a university-wide sustainability requirement in 2015. This adoption by the UVM provides an exemplary illustration to
convey instructive narratives for other HEIs seeking to integrate a SLO-requirement
into their respective university curriculum. In a rapidly changing world with high
demand for work-ready graduates, general learning outcomes (GLOs) tailored for
the market place has become increasing important for university mission statements
and the actions that follow. The presence of SLO mission statement in either “general” education or “liberal” education is not unique, but it is certainly not common
(Natkin 2018). And exploring the importance of “general” versus “liberal” education in delivering GLOs and SLOs is a compulsory task for academics, given the
H. L. Koh and S. Y. Teh
3 Sustainability Learning Outcome (SLO)
3.1 Stand-Alone Course-Based SLO
Since the Brundtland 1987 report, it was common for some universities, including USM, to incorporate sustainability elements into stand-alone courses that were
deemed sustainability-related, such as environmental modelling taught by the authors
(Koh 2004) and ENR courses. In the 1990–2005, sustainability had a predominant
skew towards concepts rooted in the ENR. It paid less emphasis on concepts related
to poverty, hunger, health, education, equality and social justice. These universities
in the 1990–2005 did not clearly define its SLOs in its mission statement to highlight
its importance. Clearly, curricula rooted in ENR are rich in examples of sustainability
and sustainability-related courses (Reid and Petocz 2006) and would provide a solid
foundation on which to build SHE. Despite the absence of institutional incentives
and framework, the seminal SHE initiatives in the 1990–2005 to incorporate sustainability elements into curriculum were primarily driven by the individual course
instructors, acting independently. They shared like-minded interests in sustainabilityrelated issues primarily oriented to ENR. The stand-alone ENR-based SLOs were
intuitive, were not explicit and had the tendency to be narrowly confined to ENR.
These stand-alone SLOs had served and delivered good learning experiences to students and educators. They paved the foundations for building university-wide SLOs
in the twenty first century, guided by the seventeen SDG targets listed in the UN
2030 Agenda, which were not even known then. Some case studies and examples
of stand-alone SLO-based research and consultancies undertaken by the authors primarily on ENR will be briefly described in later sections to highlight the daunting
sustainability challenge encountered then and now.
3.2 University-Wide SLO Requirement
It was, however, uncommon for teaching and research universities with multiple
faculties and schools, such as the USM, to mandate a university-wide requirement
in sustainability. In most cases, this mandate is beyond the financial and technical
ability of most universities. UVM adopted a university-wide sustainability requirement in 2015. This adoption by the UVM provides an exemplary illustration to
convey instructive narratives for other HEIs seeking to integrate a SLO-requirement
into their respective university curriculum. In a rapidly changing world with high
demand for work-ready graduates, general learning outcomes (GLOs) tailored for
the market place has become increasing important for university mission statements
and the actions that follow. The presence of SLO mission statement in either “general” education or “liberal” education is not unique, but it is certainly not common
(Natkin 2018). And exploring the importance of “general” versus “liberal” education in delivering GLOs and SLOs is a compulsory task for academics, given the