Tomorrow Today

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Education for sustainable development

in higher education:

the experience of Gulf universities

Ali Alraouf, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

or several decades, the six member states of the Gulf

Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have witnessed a

tremendous transformation of almost all aspects of socio-economic

and political life. In the closing years of the millennium, the Gulf

societies looked very different from what they were in the after-

math of the Second World War. One of the most salient, and least

analysed, developments is the change in their educational systems.

By the late 1990s, the great majority of young Gulf citizens had the

opportunity to receive formal education. Furthermore, the literacy

rate among adults has more than doubled in the last few decades.

This dramatic shift in the educational system of the Gulf States has

put more pressures on these states to go further with educational

reforms. The need to reorient education to address sustainability

has grabbed international attention, but the need to deal with it at

the university level in the Gulf region is just as great as anywhere.

While many nations around the world have embraced the need for

education to achieve sustainability, only limited progress has been

made. In some cases, a lack of vision or awareness has impeded

progress – in others, a lack of policy or implementa-

tion.

Education, sustainability and the Gulf universities:

clarity of definitions

Observations of how sustainability is perceived and inter-

preted in academia throughout the Gulf States suggest

a tangible lack of clarity. Gulf universities are confused

regarding the interchangeable nature of the key concepts

– sustainability of education, education for sustainability

and education for sustainable development (ESD) – that

relate education to sustainability. ESD is the term most

used internationally and by the United Nations. Agenda

21 was the first international document that identified

education as an essential tool for achieving sustainable

development and highlighted areas of action for educa-

tion.

Without a material system capable of functioning

for a long time, there is nothing to sustain. This is, of

course, the literal and pragmatic conceptualization

ESD teaching and research in Gulf universities is not very well developed

Qatar has established a department of architecture and urban planning

Image: Qatar Univerity