International Symposium “Integrating Sustainability into Education”
The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO) successfully hosted the international symposium “Integrating Sustainability into Education” on 14 November 2025. Held online, the event drew participants from Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and China and presented the outcomes of the Movetia-funded project “ConnectEurasia: Designing Collaborative Online Learning for Sustainability”.
The symposium opened with a dynamic plenary session featuring Maria Stergiou (Movetia), who outlined the agency’s commitment to strengthening international collaboration for sustainable development. Dr. Laura Perret (VALPEO, Switzerland) highlighted the need to reshape educational approaches to better support real sustainability transitions. Dr. Güldem Karamustafa and Dr. Sandra McGury (Switzerland) presented key achievements of the ConnectEurasia project, demonstrating how intercultural collaboration enriches sustainability education. The plenary also featured engaging student reflections from Aruzhan Merekebek (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan) and Souhel Bouidioua (HES-SO, Switzerland), who shared how their COIL participation broadened their perspectives and strengthened their global competencies.
The parallel sessions offered a deeper thematic exploration. The first session, moderated by Dr. Shan Juan and Dr. Shuting Li (Shanghai University, China), examined how industry expectations are shifting and which sustainability competencies – such as systems thinking and cross-sector collaboration – are increasingly required from graduates. The second session, moderated by Dr. Aknur Zhidebekkyzy (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan), focused on best practices for introducing sustainability into teaching across disciplines, the key barriers faculty face and strategies to address them, approaches to evaluating the real impact of sustainability education on students’ values, skills, and career orientations, and practical recommendations for further improvement. The third session, moderated by Dr. Sandra McGury and Dr. Patrick Studer (ZHAW, Switzerland) highlighted a range of international education tools, including COIL, Virtual Exchange, and Blended Intensive Programmes, demonstrating how digital collaboration strengthens teamwork, supports fair credit recognition, and fosters lasting academic partnerships.
Bringing together educators, researchers, and students from several countries, the symposium demonstrated the value of cross-border dialogue and collaborative learning for advancing sustainability education. The event reaffirmed the commitment of the “ConnectEurasia” project partners to promoting responsible, future-oriented teaching practices and strengthening international academic cooperation.
