| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 92.73 |
| Liaison | Emmanuelle Jodoin |
| Submission Date | Oct. 24, 2022 |
Université de Sherbrooke
AC-2: Learning Outcomes
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
8.00 / 8.00 |
Jean-François
Comeau Director, Project for the Integration of Sustainable Development in Education Office of the Vice-President, Academic |
Has the institution adopted one or more sustainability learning outcomes that apply to the entire student body or, at minimum, to the institution's predominant student body?:
Which of the following best describes the sustainability learning outcomes?:
A list of the institution level sustainability learning outcomes:
The Université de Sherbrooke’s commitment to making its graduates aware of and responsible for the physical and social environment in which they live is intended to be an essential contribution to meeting the current and future challenges of our society, particularly in the context of climate change.
“We want to train responsible citizens who will change the world.” This is what Professor Christine Hudon, Vice-President, Academic, said at the opening of a forum on ecoresponsibility in university education in April 2019. This event, organized by the Office of the Vice-President, Academic, and the Office of the Vice-President, Administration and Sustainable Development, brought together nearly one hundred people as part of the University Pedagogy Month. (https://www.usherbrooke.ca/actualites/nouvelles/details/40317)
The university’s commitment to training eco-responsible graduates is explicit: https://www.usherbrooke.ca/developpement-durable/etudes-et-recherche/etudes. It is also explicitly put forward for all those applying for admission to one of the programs at the Université de Sherbrooke. Indeed, the university clearly announces its orientation in sustainable development to those seeking information for their study project: https://www.usherbrooke.ca/admission/nous-choisir/le-developpement-durable.
To further this commitment, the Université de Sherbrooke has adopted a strategic plan for the period 2022-2025 which contains a set of strategies for the institution, some of which are specifically aimed at education. Thus, this plan contains a specific strategic objective (1.2) which is to “enrich training through sustainable development initiatives in all programs.” The university is therefore firmly committed to ensuring that all training programs integrate the dimensions of sustainable development and it supports this commitment in a very concrete way by providing the means to do so. (https://www.usherbrooke.ca/planification-strategique/fileadmin/sites/planification-strategique/documents/udes_plan_strategique_22_25_AN.pdf)
In this context, at the beginning of 2022, the university entrusted a Director with the mandate of structuring the integration of sustainable development in education at the institutional level. This Director is associated with the Vice-President, Academic. In addition, for the past few years, the university has entrusted a pedagogical advisor with the specific mandate of supporting teaching staff and program managers in the integration of sustainable development in education. The university’s management therefore deploys specific resources to meet its commitment to train eco-responsible graduates.
In addition, in terms of research that can contribute to this commitment, researchers from the Business School recently received a grant from the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (IOHE) to work on studying the best examples of deployment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in universities, in partnership with the University of El Salvador in Argentina. This 18-month project will provide an opportunity to document the best strategies used and will enhance the work and reflection of the Université de Sherbrooke’s programs.
(https://www.usherbrooke.ca/actualites/nouvelles/environnement/details/47808)
Finally, a survey was conducted in March 2022 to the student community on its culture of sustainable development. A specific question dealt with the perception that the Université de Sherbrooke helped its student community to develop more eco-responsible behaviours and habits during its formation. Thus, 61% of respondents (n=1208) considered that they “strongly agreed” or “agreed” with this statement, which is a good indication of the practices and the education offered at the Université de Sherbrooke in terms of sustainable development.
Total number of graduates from degree programs:
Number of graduates from degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
A brief description of how the figure above was determined:
The Office of the Registrar first provided data on the number of graduates by programme for the 2020-2021 academic year.
From this list, the count of graduates from programmes “that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability” was carried out according to the three criteria presented in the STARS Technical Manual. Thus, programme fact sheets that include the training targets, the learning objectives, the competencies of the various programmes, and the course descriptions were analyzed to determine the number of graduates from:
• Programmes with sustainability-focused training targets
• Programmes that contain at least one mandatory sustainability-focused course
• Programmes identified in AC3 and AC4 credits (except for new programmes that do not yet have graduates)
A list of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
Documentation supporting the figure reported above (upload):
Do the figures reported above cover one, two, or three academic years?:
Percentage of students who graduate from programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability:
Website URL where information about the sustainability learning outcomes is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.