The University of Queensland School of Business has joined forces with the Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES) at Macquarie University, Sydney, on a project to drive the sustainability agenda in Australian universities.
ARIES Director Associate Professor Daniella Tilbury said the issue of sustainability was gaining significant ground in the business and industry sector internationally and the Master of Business Administration (MBA) was probably the world’s best-known and most influential postgraduate program.
“In preparing future decision-makers, business schools have a key role to play in providing education and capacity-building as well as leadership in sustainability,” Associate Professor Tilbury said.
Associate Professor Tilbury said assessment of the programs in key Australian business schools has shown an important change in the make-up of business programs, with new benchmarks established in sustainability education.
“The business schools used an education for sustainability framework designed to provide students with the skill sets needed to bring about change, rather than education about sustainability which involves teaching what sustainability is and why it is important,” she said.
The UQ Business School’s participation in the project was driven by Professor Andrew Griffiths, who has introduced new courses for sustainability and modified existing MBA and executive programs at the University.
Professor Griffiths said the UQ Business School had also built new partnerships and extended existing links with the corporate sector.
“The networks established with the business community served to increase their involvement with The University of Queensland and encouraged them to see how they could contribute to the education of future business leaders in this important area,” he said.
As well as the UQ Business School, the project also included the Australian Graduate School of Management, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney University of Technology’s Graduate School of Business, the Australian National University`s College of Business and Economics, Curtin Graduate School of Business, and the RMIT Graduate School of Management.
The project was funded by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage as part of the Australian Government’s contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).
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