Universities, Regional Development and Sustainability
835
Regional engagement
Handling
concrete issues and
problems
Dialogue with
stakeholders partners
High
Quality
Academic inputs
Fig. 1 Sustainability and regional development
2. the existence of a strong publications profile on sustainable development issues
published in international journals, which address regional issues;
3. the existence of a robust research programme with externally-funded projects
handling sustainable development matters which are relevant to their regions;
4. the implementation of principles of sustainable development with a regional
perspective, as an intrinsic part of university teaching programmes;
5. the integration of sustainable development in the context of university activities
and operations (e.g. campus greening) with local links;
6. the existence of a programme of extension (outreach) on sustainable development
topics, for the non-students public at the local and regional levels.
It is admittedly not easy to fulfill all these criteria. Most universities will fulfill
a couple of them, but there are only few examples of universities which provide an
emphasis to all six criteria, which would be an ideal scenario.
This state of affairs suggests that action is needed in order to allow universities to
integrate sustainable development in regional development. Some of the measures
that can be undertaken without a great deal of extra resources are:
(a) Fostering the links between the theory and the practice of sustainability: by
means of case studies, pilot projects and regional initiatives on-the-ground, it
can be illustrated how close to reality sustainability is and how cities and regions
may benefit from it. There are various good examples of initiatives which provide an excellent basis against which the real value of regional sustainability
efforts can be seen. One of them is the initiative RCE (Regional Centres of
Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development), created in response to
the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD,
2005–2014). The RCE networks address local sustainable development chal-
835
Regional engagement
Handling
concrete issues and
problems
Dialogue with
stakeholders partners
High
Quality
Academic inputs
Fig. 1 Sustainability and regional development
2. the existence of a strong publications profile on sustainable development issues
published in international journals, which address regional issues;
3. the existence of a robust research programme with externally-funded projects
handling sustainable development matters which are relevant to their regions;
4. the implementation of principles of sustainable development with a regional
perspective, as an intrinsic part of university teaching programmes;
5. the integration of sustainable development in the context of university activities
and operations (e.g. campus greening) with local links;
6. the existence of a programme of extension (outreach) on sustainable development
topics, for the non-students public at the local and regional levels.
It is admittedly not easy to fulfill all these criteria. Most universities will fulfill
a couple of them, but there are only few examples of universities which provide an
emphasis to all six criteria, which would be an ideal scenario.
This state of affairs suggests that action is needed in order to allow universities to
integrate sustainable development in regional development. Some of the measures
that can be undertaken without a great deal of extra resources are:
(a) Fostering the links between the theory and the practice of sustainability: by
means of case studies, pilot projects and regional initiatives on-the-ground, it
can be illustrated how close to reality sustainability is and how cities and regions
may benefit from it. There are various good examples of initiatives which provide an excellent basis against which the real value of regional sustainability
efforts can be seen. One of them is the initiative RCE (Regional Centres of
Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development), created in response to
the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD,
2005–2014). The RCE networks address local sustainable development chal-