Our aim is to educate responsible leaders for serving our economy, environment and society. By signing the SDG Accord letter in October 2019, the University of St.Gallen commits to further integrate sustainability and responsibility into the curriculum.
The University of St.Gallen aims to educate responsible entrepreneurially-minded students whose actions are informed by environmental and social grand challenges. Thereby, the HSG lives up to the responsibility of higher education institutions to equip students with the skills necessary to navigate current and future sustainability challenges in an increasingly complex world.
Building on a wide variety of courses and programmes that integrate sustainability-related topics, HSG is committed to further embedding sustainability in its curricula. Following an integrative approach, we are expanding our academic offerings to include sustainability across all levels and in all disciplines, while simultaneously promoting corresponding co-curricular activities. In doing so, we intend to promote a learning environment that fosters the development of transformational leadership skills and sustainability expertise.
“Our direction is clear: everyone teaching at HSG must become an ambassador for sustainability”
Prof. Martin Eppler | Vice President Studies & Academic Affairs
Starting in fall 2020, students at HSG, have the possibility to add a sustainability-related certificate to their studies. The certificate program MaCS-HSG “Managing Climate Solutions” addresses one of the biggest societal challenges of our time. Climate change is now widely acknowledged, but how can it be successfully tackled?
This is the key question to be answered by future leaders in business and society. Through the additional qualification in Managing Climate Solutions, students will complement their core Master`s program at the University of St. Gallen with dedicated courses enabling them to understand the magnitude of the challenge, to explore the range of possible solutions, to craft behaviorally informed strategies, and to shape a positive future in a carbon-constrained world.
At all levels of education, HSG offers numerous courses and several programmes that integrate sustainability-related issues. This comprises both the integration of grand challenges into core programmes, as well as offering specialized courses, mostly as part of the Contextual Studies track. Contextual Studies form one of the most important and unique distinguishing features of the University of St. Gallen. It is a core element of all our degree programmes at HSG and conveys insights and allows building skills that make a difference in the economy, society, and politics of the twenty-first century.
For all courses, we distinguish between courses that deal with sustainability as a core topic and courses that deal with sustainability as one topic amongst others. A comprehensive yet non-exhaustive list of sustainability-related courses and modules on all levels of education can be found below. Similar lists from previous years can be provided upon request.
A special highlight is the newly developed ‘Be the Change’ course concept: Following a contemporary teaching approach, these action-learning courses are co-organised and co-taught by students and based on co-creation and collaborative leadership methods. Creating a learning community of students, guest speakers, and course facilitators allows transformative learning processes to take place, leading to a deep understanding of business practices for sustainability. Following a successful pilot last year in the field of consulting for sustainability, the course concept will now be replicated in other contexts, such as finance or leadership.
Various HSG study programmes integrate sustainability into their curriculum. The list below presents a selection of those programmes. More information on how they integrate sustainability can be found on their respective websites.
The efforts to further embed responsibility and sustainability topics in all our study programmes are ongoing. If you are interested in learning more about specific examples, you can find more information in our latest PRME report on page 29 & 31.
We encourage, support, and accompany the in-depth change towards embedding sustainability in the HSG curriculum through both new and existing courses. We use innovative teaching methods wherever possible to enhance the learning experience for students. Our goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible, and to create a lasting impact for all parties involved. To this end, we collaborate with various internal and external stakeholders to provide the best and most inclusive support possible.
A customized support system has been developed to meet the needs of both programme managers and faculty teaching at HSG. The support system covers various activities that are carried out by HSG support service staff, faculty colleagues, students, and/or external stakeholders.
The support system respects the freedom of teaching granted to each faculty at HSG and does not impose any specific ways of integrating sustainability into a particular course. The faculty in charge of the course always decides on the content and the way of teaching.
