Online sustainability course launched at METU in Spring 2024
In the framework of the Hungarian Universities Sustainability Platform (MEFP), an online course "Introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" based on the principles of the UN Sustainable Development Framework was launched in the spring semester 2023-24 in cooperation with 11 partner universities. The course is open to students from any participating partner university. Since then, more universities have joined the MEFP programme, bringing the total number of participating institutions to 16.
METU was one of the first universities to sign the Framework Agreement of the Hungarian Universities Sustainability Platform (MEFP), initiated by the University of Pécs and several other universities.
In 2016, the University of Pécs symbolically laid the cornerstone of the PTE Green University Programme, which has as its mission to encourage good practice, innovation and management in all environments, to shape and strengthen ecological awareness through science and education. The representatives of the universities participating in the PTE Green Workshops organised by the University of Pécs in 2021 and in previous years within the framework of the V4GU project, as well as in the Planet Budapest 2021 Sustainability Expo and World Summit, expressed their wish to create a common platform where good practices in the field of sustainability can be shared on a regular basis, joint actions can be organised and closer cooperation can be established in order to spread developments for sustainability goals as widely as possible.
In this semester, a total of 1209 students from participating universities took the course "Introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)", which at METU is called "The Age of Sustainability - Questions and Answers".
The MEFP programme's contact persons at METU are Dr. Lívia Csete, Legal Adviser and Dr. András Szeberényi, Associate Professor. The lecturer in charge of the course is Dr. András Szeberényi, Associate Professor.
"The concept of sustainability is becoming more and more obvious to people and generations, and many people are already familiar with topics such as climate change, environmental protection or the use of renewable energy sources. However, we also need to be able to translate this not only into theory but also into practice. I am particularly pleased that METU can be the cornerstone of an innovative initiative to bring this information to our students in a much more efficient and modern way. This is why we have launched the course 'The Age of Sustainability - Questions and Answers', as it is a great opportunity for anyone who wants not only to learn more about the subject, but also to really take action for our environment and our future! It is really great to see that our students are so interested in this area. A clear sign of this is that we have a total of 122 students enrolled in the course for the spring semester 2023/2024, which represents 10% of the total student enrolment, and that is a very good result!
Based on the current feedback, the course is very popular at METU and we have received many requests from Master's students to take the course in the future. We have already started preparations for this, and we expect to offer a new version of the course to both undergraduate and masters students in the 2024/2025 academic year.
For those of you who have not yet taken advantage of this opportunity, I strongly encourage you to sign up for the course next semester if you can, it is definitely worth it." - Dr. András Szeberényi, Associate Professor at METU and the course's lecturer, said.
Source: metropolitan.hu