ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS - The Nelson Mandela University (NMU) George Campus is today hosting the launch of an international project, Future21, that is focused on redesigning higher education curricula with an aim to prepare students for a world of work in which they have to tackle complex socio-ecological challenges.
Future21 is an international project led by the George Campus that encourages collaboration between academia, industry, society and government in an effort to address global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, socioeconomic inequalities and creating sustainable industry.
The project is funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ funding. The launch is in the form of a symposium with various speakers from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Strategic Impact Leadership Advisory (Silas), CMO Supply Chain Integrity, the University of Inland Norway and NMU, among others.
Prof Christa Grobler, dean of the NMU Science Faculty, said the core of Future21 lies within a radical rethinking of how students are taught and what they are taught.
“We are moving beyond the narrow disciplines towards a social economic system.” She said in addition to revising old curricula, new modules and new short learning programmes will also be developed with a focus on the green economy.
“We are equipping our students not just to graduate, but to become leaders in sectors like natural resource management and conservation, and to be critical role players in the growing of our green economy.”
Dr Tatenda Mapeto, project coordinator, said the collaboration is sorted around work packages, the first of which is to have all the partners come together and have a look at the curricula and update them. There will be workshops, further symposiums as well as student challenges where the students go out into the real world. The other part of the collaboration is to form active and ongoing partnerships.
The Future21 partners are the University of Mpumalanga and two international academic partners, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and Häme University of Applied Sciences, an industry partner, Forestry South Africa, as well as the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve and Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve.
The symposium concludes this afternoon.
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