The SDGs as a learning tool: a multidisciplinary experience in university studies

Abstract

The approval of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) represents an ambitious roadmap which try to respond to the global and existential challenges that humanity faces. Under the slogan: “Leaving no one behind”, its 17 Goals include transcendental issues ranging from poverty eradication to climate action, through access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy or sustained economic growth, inclusive and sustainable and ending with the reduction of inequalities between countries or the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies. In this context, Universities, like the rest of the actors, are called to play a fundamental role due to their position as generators and transmitters of knowledge. This is precisely the purpose of this educational innovation project in which the SDGs are used as a learning tool. It is an innovative and multidisciplinary experience implemented during several academic years in four different degrees at the European University of Valencia. More than a hundred students have had the opportunity to participate in the project, obtaining highly satisfactory results and an evident improvement in their knowledge and skills. A project, in which different learning methodologies are combined, with the aim that students, as future leaders and managers, not only know and are able to respond to these important challenges, but also they acquire a series of competencies, the so-called soft skills, which are currently essential for a better quality education and more human.