Linking quality assurance and ESD: Towards a participative quality culture of sustainable development in higher education

Abstract

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is nothing less than a radical paradigmatic shift in education and learning. To initiate this shift, the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD) has the overall objective to integrate the main principles and values that underlie sustainable development into all aspects of learning and education (UNESCO, 2005). This global educational effort is intended to encourage far-reaching changes in behaviour that will create a more sustainable future and will enable citizens to tackle both present and future sustainability challenges. In short, ESD shall act as a fundamental agent of sustainable change.