LERU New Year's Debate on sustainable development: universities must take the lead

The debate was opened by Prof. Yves Flückiger, Rector of the Université de Genève and Chair of LERU. He set the tone by expressing that universities are well-equipped to reach the 2030 sustainability development goals (SDG’s) adopted by all United Nations Member States, and that they have the duty to do so. Prof. Gerard Govers, Vice-Rector at KU Leuven, agreed during his keynote presentation, stating: “we are the ones that have to do it”. However, he also addressed some challenges within the aspect of teaching about sustainable development: “We must not overestimate the knowledge of young students about sustainability and make sure that we inform them. […] Therefore, we must stimulate the debate about and the integration of sustainability at universities.”

After the introduction, different speakers engaged in conversations during panel debates about three important dimensions of sustainable development, namely campus operations, education, and cities.

On the topic of campus operations, Pieter Duisenberg, Chairman of Universiteiten van Nederland (VSNU), and Prof. Tom Böhling, Vice-Rector at the University of Helsinki, discussed how universities in their countries implement their strategies for sustainable development and how they get staff and students on board. Prof. Böhling expressed thereby the importance of having a sustainability centre where all ideas are centralised.

During the second panel debate of the evening, Ms Veronika Hunt Safrankova of UNEP's Brussels Office and Dr Jeannette Behringer of the University of Zurich both agreed that young people with different expertise are needed to tackle the global challenges we are facing, and that therefore universities have to get the students on board. According to Dr Behringer, leading research-intensive universities must gain more interdisciplinary knowledge about sustainability to do so. Prof. Govers shared this view, saying: “If we don’t have facts, we get carried away by our emotions”. This was applauded by the audience.

How can universities contribute to making the cities and regions where they are based more sustainable? This question was asked during the last panel debate, where Ms Rosalinde van der Vlies of the European Commission (DG R&I) first explained the Cities Mission, which aims to realise 100 climate-neutral and smart European cities by 2030. She also expressed the importance of all universities in this mission: “Universities are needed to bring this to a good end. They should all be actively involved, not only in the selected cities.” In addition to this, Prof. Toomas Asser, Rector of the University of Tartu, shared what his university and the city of Tartu already achieved.

The New Year’s Debate was concluded by Prof. Linda Doyle, Provost and President of Trinity College Dublin and member of the LERU Board of Directors.