New "Sustainability and Transition" cross-disciplinary course at ULiège 

A new, unique, cross-disciplinary course on sustainability and transition issues will be launched at the Université de Liège from the start of the 2024-2025 academic year. It will be included in the curriculum of all bachelor students.

Today's challenges call for far-reaching changes to our lifestyles. To meet the challenges of the necessary social and environmental transition, the University of Liège is developing its teaching and training programs, drawing on cutting-edge scientific research that addresses the various dimensions of sustainability in a variety of ways. An inventory of existing general and specialized training courses has been drawn up, and courses focusing specifically on environmental and social transition have been identified and will be promoted.

Interdisciplinarity and concrete action

At the same time, ULiège also intends to develop interdisciplinary teaching, essential to benefit from complementary insights and a better understanding of the systemic nature of the transition. From the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, the University of Liège will include a compulsory 2-credit (ECTS) "Sustainability and Transition" course in all its bachelor's programs. It will be taught in French and English. 

"Designed to develop a foundation of cross-disciplinary knowledge, this teaching will be delivered mainly in the form of a MOOC (online course) involving numerous experts from our university," points out Sybille Mertens, Conseillère de la Rectrice à la Transition sociale et environnementale. "Thefirst part will focus on the facts, the causes and introduce the solutions, all from a systemic perspective. The second part, organized within the Faculties, will address concrete solutions and propose concrete actions to students, possibly in conjunction with the ULiège Green Office or the university NGO Eclosio. It will provide a multidisciplinary perspective

Consultation and meetings

"Together with in-house experts, we built the pedagogical objectives and the course outline on the basis of a wide consultation of materials, such as scientific articles, books, international reports on teaching sustainable development, existing MOOCs at ULiège and external MOOCs devoted to this theme ", explains Florianne Fassotte, a specialist in sustainable development, who is coordinating the design of the content for this new course.

"Bilateral meetings with the 11 Faculties are underway, and an inter-faculty meeting day is scheduled as part of the next Quinzaine du Climat , which will take place around COP28 ", Florianne Fassotte continues. " It is essential to meet, exchange ideas and establish collaborations around the second part of the course, which aims to put students into action in a disciplinary or interdisciplinary way. the objectives of this meeting are to motivate and inspire the various stakeholders, and to facilitate the sharing of information and teaching resources "

The aim of this new compulsory cross-disciplinary course is to train academics to understand the complexity of our world, to collaborate and to act constructively and responsibly in favor of necessary change.

More information

durabilite.transition@uliege.be