Redefining Education: Navigating Sustainability and Innovation in a VUCA World

Description

In a world increasingly subject to volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) the goal of sustainability is aspirational, yet elusive. A UN report published in 2024 notes that “intensifying, interconnected challenges continue to endanger the realization” of the seventeen sustainable development goals identified by the UN Sustainability Conference twelve years ago in Rio de Janeiro. This is especially true in education, which the report correctly terms “the bedrock of sustainable development.” It notes the negative effects of the COVID epidemic, regional conflicts, climate shock, and economic turmoil and paints a picture of a planet struggling to make progress towards them. While the big picture may be less than perfect, there is still much cause for hope, as we strive towards a better future.

Against this backdrop, the International Conference on Improving University Teaching seeks to address the challenge of sustainability, equity, and innovation as they affect higher education. In particular, we are exploring how to prepare students for a “VUCA world” in which they will have to contend with multiple challenges, while at the same time ensuring their wellbeing—and that of all academic staff—in the present. By definition, a future subject to uncertainty and ambiguity will require flexibility and adaptability on the part of students.

Our 51st conference will explore both the challenges the VUCA world poses to the traditional university curriculum and possible positive responses. Once again this year’s conference will be a hybrid event. Our in-person host for 2025 is the University of Westminster in London. Founded in 1838 and serving 19,000 students drawn from over 160 countries, the university cultivates a rich array of industrial partnerships that offer placements and work experience in more than 180 different sites, thereby presenting an instructive example of how university education can be redefined. Other sessions will be held within the hybrid format we have successfully used since 2020. We hope many participants will attend the conference in person in London, but also warmly welcome those who choose to participate in the limited remote programme.

Period	16 Jul 2025 → 18 Jul 2025
Event type	Conference
Location	London, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International