Developing countries have been facing more challenges to sustainability than the developed countries. This chapter evaluates the current sustainable education practices among the universities in Bangladesh and proposes a revised multi-level framework to enhance sustainability education practices among the universities. Based on the opinion of the staff and students of the top 10 public and private universities (according to the University Grant Commission report 2018) in Bangladesh, the study found evidence of the inclusion of sustainability issues onto the faculty's mission and vision statements, but very few are incorporated into the program curricula. In addition, dearth of sustainability training to the teachers provokes their failure of providing education for sustainable development. Considering the findings, this chapter proposes the importance and role of regulatory authorities teachers, students, professionals, and corporate people enhancing sustainable education practices at the university level.
TopIntroduction
Developing countries have been facing more challenges to sustainability than the developed countries. ITT (2017) provided that 92% of all pollution-related deaths occur in developing countries, and 25% of the deaths are attributable to pollution. Among the developing countries, Bangladesh is in severe environmental risks due to several reasons including financial capability, lack of technical and scientific resources, constraints in implementing rules and regulations, and administrative structure (Economic Commission for Africa, 2007; Futurism, 2018; ITT, 2017; Hossain & Alam, 2016). In addition, lack of sustainability education is leading to nescience about environmental protection among the people of the developing worlds (Biancardi & Villani, 2014). Moreover, there is a scarcity of research considering the sustainability issues of the developing countries (Belal & Roberts, 2010; Sobhani et al., 2012).
Education for sustainable development (ESD), commonly known as sustainability education, is considered a pathway to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). The target 7 under SDG 4 states that “by 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development” (UN, 2015). In addition, sustainable education can be one of the effective options to achieve rest of the 16 sustainable development goals (SDGs), because only education can change the attitude and skills of people in a way that meets the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their needs.
Given the importance of sustainability education, the extant literature highlights that educational institutions are yet to reach at providing sustainable education mentioned at SDG 4.7. In line with providing sustainable education, some mentionable initiatives have already been taken at primary and secondary education level by different stakeholders including UNESCO, UN, state/local governments, and educational institutions throughout world (UNESCO, 2019; Salequzzaman and Gorana, 2016; Haque, 2013), while less focus has been given on the sustainability education at the tertiary levels, especially from developing economies like Bangladesh.
Universities are considered as the center of developing quality professionals and responsible citizen. Currently, Bangladeshi universities (32 public and 84 private universities) are providing the tertiary education to a significant number (23%) of the total of 3.2 million students pursuing higher education (Mannan, 2017), thereby assume that sustainability education by universities in Bangladesh may be one of the effective ways of achieving SDG 4 (Bhowmik, Selim and Huq, 2017). Therefore, this book chapter evaluates the current sustainable education practices among the universities in Bangladesh. Given numerous challenges towards sustainability education practices by the universities from developing economies, this chapter also proposes a revised multi-level framework in order to enhance sustainability education practices among the universities in Bangladesh.
The required data were collected from the published sources of the Faculty of Business Administration of top 10 public and private universities (according to the University Grant Commission report 2018) in Bangladesh, and by conducting a questionnaire survey among teachers and students of the business faculty of the sample universities.