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Communication on Sustainability in Universities: A Bridge between Academia and Society

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 21281

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Dr. Daniela De Filippo

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Guest Editor

Department of Library Science and Documentation, University Carlos III de Madrid, 28903 Getafe, Madrid, Spain
Interests: scientific communication; scientometrics; open science; higher education; sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to present this new Special Issue of Sustainability.

Universities as institutions make a significant social, economic, academic, scientific, and technological contribution to their local and national environments. For its scope and the breadth of its available resources, the university system is a key agent in implementing and propagating all manner of policies, sustainability among them. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are consequently crucial to societal transformation.

Do these actions really reach society, though? How are they communicated? How do different stakeholders perceive them?

In order to delve deeper into these issues, this Special Issue of Sustainability calls for the submission of papers analyzing problematics related to the following topics:

Institutional communication of sustainability in universities: policies, strategies, mechanisms for dissemination;
Social communication activities of the universities related to sustainability: scientific dissemination; organization of congresses, meetings, workshops, citizen science activities;
Information on sustainability in universities in mass media and/or social media;
Perception of different stakeholders on actions related to sustainability in universities;
University–business relationship in sustainability issues and support for entrepreneurship to achieve greater impact on the local environment;
Collaboration between university and local governments for the joint development of actions on sustainability.

Based on these general topics, this monographic number will receive studies analyzing the different actions developed by universities to communicate their activities on sustainability. Papers which, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, analyze the impact that these actions have had, propose suggestions for improvements, detect good practices or analyze outstanding case studies are welcome.

The papers can be theoretical–methodological or applied.

Dr. Daniela De Filippo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Communication in sustainability
Higher education institutions
Perception of sustainability activities
Institutional communication strategies

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 5799 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fostering Sustainable Quality Assurance Practices in Outcome-Based Education: Lessons Learned from ABET Accreditation Process of Computing Programs

by Abdullah M. Almuhaideb and Saqib Saeed

Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8380; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12208380 - 12 Oct 2020

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4599

Abstract

Education is an important enabler for economic uplift of a society and academic institutions need to deliver quality education to equip students with required skills to excel in their professional careers. Due to international initiatives such as Washington and Seoul accords, outcome-based education has gained significant interest from industry, academia, governments, accreditation bodies and students. Outcome-based education is a paradigm shift form conventional education approach and its successful adoption requires sustainable quality practices by higher education institutions. Fostering quality assurance processes for outcome-based education requires careful planning and active collaboration among stakeholders. However, due to the sparse body of knowledge about quality processes in outcome-based education, many academic institutions rely on ad hoc practices, resulting in a trial and error approach. In this paper, we present set of guidelines which can help academic institutions to deploy sustainable practices in their academic programs. We document important guidelines to deliver outcome-based education based on our longitudinal work of ABET accreditation process of three different computing programs (Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, and Cyber Security and Digital Forensics). The successful application of proposed guidelines helps to foster sustainable quality practices in academic programs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication on Sustainability in Universities: A Bridge between Academia and Society)

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21 pages, 2392 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Communication on Sustainability in Spanish Universities: Analysis of Websites, Scientific Papers and Impact in Social Media

by Daniela De Filippo, Javier Benayas, Karem Peña and Flor Sánchez

Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 8278; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12198278 - 08 Oct 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2940

Abstract

This study analyses how Spanish universities are communicating their commitment to sustainability to society. That entailed analysing the content of their websites and their scientific papers in sustainability science and technologies and measuring the impact of such research in social media. Results obtained from bibliometric approaches and institutional document analysis attest to intensified interest in sustainability among Spanish universities in recent years. The findings revealed an increase in the number of universities using terms associated with sustainability to designate the governing bodies. The present study also uses an activity index to identify universities that devote high effort to research on sustainability and seven Spanish universities were identified with output greater than 3% of the total. Mentions in social media were observed to have grown significantly in the last 10 years, with 38% of the sustainability papers receiving such attention, compared to 21% in 2010. Publications in open access journals have had a greater impact on social media, especially on Twitter and Facebook. The analysis of university websites showed that only 30% had social media accounts and only 6% blogs specifically designed to disseminate their sustainability activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication on Sustainability in Universities: A Bridge between Academia and Society)

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32 pages, 2356 KiB

Open AccessArticle

University Discourse to Foster Youth’s Sustainability in Society amidst COVID19: International and Russian Features

by Anastasia Atabekova

Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7336; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12187336 - 07 Sep 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4339

Abstract

This paper explores university discourse as a conceptual-communicative macrostructure that verbally represents international organizations’ and universities’ policies and activities to support youth’s sustainable development to support youth’s sustainable development amidst COVID19. The materials include universities’ official site information and higher education-related data from international organizations regarding universities’ activities during the pandemic. The textual corpus from 172 universities from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Latin America, Oceania, as well as 164 documents with essential international institutional affiliations, were explored. The methodology combined qualitative and quantitative tools, theoretical, and empirical analysis. Data processing rested on thematic content analysis. Manual and computer-based coding techniques were applied. The analysis made it possible to identify major concepts and their constituents which form a verbally expressed conceptual macrostructure of university knowledge and action in fostering youth’s sustainability during pandemics. The findings revealed some standard features within universities communication dimensions, on the one hand, and some specific to Russian universities on the other. Differences between universities and international organizations concerning communication focus were also identified. The research findings result in tentative recommendations to bridge Academia, University, and Society in efforts to foster youth’s status and sustainability in contemporary civilization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication on Sustainability in Universities: A Bridge between Academia and Society)

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15 pages, 888 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding the University-Sustainability Link through Media: A Spanish Perspective

by Cecilia Elizabeth Bayas Aldaz, Jesus Rodriguez-Pomeda, Leyla Angélica Sandoval Hamón and Fernando Casani

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 4830; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12124830 - 12 Jun 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2776

Abstract

This article provides a procedure to universities for understanding the social perception of their activities in the sustainability field, through the analysis of news published in the printed media. It identifies the Spanish news sources that have covered this issue the most and the topics that appear in that news coverage. Using a probabilistic topic model called Latent Dirichlet Allocation, the study includes the nine dominant topics within a corpus with more than seventeen thousand published news items (totaling approximately five and a quarter million words) from a database of almost thirteen hundred national press sources between 2014 and 2017. The study identifies the news sources that published the most news on the issue. It is also found that the amount of news on sustainability and universities declined during the covered period. The nine identified topics point towards the relevance of higher education institutions’ activities as drivers of sustainability. The social perception encapsulated within the topics signals how the public is interested in these activities. Therefore, we find some interesting relationships between sustainable development, higher education institutions’ missions and behaviors, governmental policies, university funding and governance, social and economic innovation, and green campuses in terms of the overall goal of sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication on Sustainability in Universities: A Bridge between Academia and Society)

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22 pages, 301 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Concept of Sustainability in the Romanian Top Universities’ Strategic Plans

by Simona Șimon, Claudia E. Stoian and Vasile Gherheș

Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2757; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12072757 - 01 Apr 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2645

Abstract

The concept of sustainability has been given more and more attention lately as the effects of climate change drastically impact society and threaten the wellbeing of future generations. In this context, universities are expected to build bridges between the academic and research communities on the one hand and society on the other, and to further the values associated with this concept in order to care for the generations to come. Thus, the present study describes the causes that have led to the emergence of this concept, defines it, and highlights some of the actions taken by universities and researchers. The question raised regards the position of the top Romanian universities towards the concept of sustainability. The way it is used explicitly in their strategic plans is viewed as proof as to whether the universities give it prominence or not, and as such, act accordingly. In order to achieve the primary objective of the research, a quantitative and a qualitative analysis were carried out. The main conclusion drawn is that the top Romanian universities are still at the beginning in terms of raising awareness about the concept and in terms of implementing sustainable measures in the domains that help them build sustainable universities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication on Sustainability in Universities: A Bridge between Academia and Society)

19 pages, 759 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Credible Sources of Information Regarding Induced Seismicity

by Andrew Tracy and Amy Javernick-Will

Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2308; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12062308 - 16 Mar 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3286

Abstract

The central United States has seen an increase in earthquakes in recent years, spurring academics to research this new hazard and communicate their findings to the public—that the earthquakes are human-induced and tied to activities associated with oil and gas development. However, individuals receive information from a variety of sources and accept or reject information based on how credible they view the information source. Within this study, we administered and analyzed a household survey to understand what sources individuals view as credible regarding induced seismicity and oil and gas development, and what factors predict this perceived source credibility. We found that academics were viewed as the most credible source, and elected officials were viewed as the least credible source. Rural respondents viewed sources, including academics, as less credible than their urban counterparts. Those who experienced more negative impacts of induced seismicity viewed all sources as less credible than did individuals who have not experienced such adverse impacts. These findings are important to consider when developing outreach and communication campaigns around sustainability issues, as the public will view certain sources, particularly academics, as more credible than the sources that traditionally create and enact policy, such as elected officials and government agencies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication on Sustainability in Universities: A Bridge between Academia and Society)

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