Read an article on Sustainability Literacy Test by Jean-Christophe Carteron
Marseille, Sept 3rd 2014
From: the General Secretariat
To: all Contributors (Regional Committee and Advisory Board)
and all examiners & university representatives
Dear members of the Sulitest community,
One year ago, we launched the idea of finally being able to measure our students’ knowledge on the key issues of sustainable development. We did not want to create a tool for just one or two universities in a specific country but one that could be shared worldwide, regardless of a student’s degree level or area of study. We wanted a tool that would help faculty to measure the sustainability literacy level of their new incoming students and to assess their level before graduating and use these indicators to drive changes in pedagogy and the curriculum. Most of all, we wanted to design and innovative tool to raise sustainability awareness and knowledge of students, staff and faculty.
Two months before the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, organized by the United Nations (Aishi-Nagoya, Japan, November 2014) where we will present the first survey on global trends on students’ knowledge, we already know that our "Sulitest" is a success!
Not only have we worked with major international organizations (e.g. UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP, PRME) to validate the process, the matrix and content (nearly 600 questions), we’ve also managed to bring together a vibrant, active community of more than 200 volunteers from all over the world (teachers and researchers, students, business, NGOs). All this in just a few months! Thanks to the hard work of our regional committee, questions are now customized in 17 countries or regions (Argentina, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Peru, Quebec, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA) and translated into 8 languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese , Chinese and Wales).
Among the 215 universities registered today, 17 have already announced their intent to be "full players". These universities are deeply committed to sustainable development and will use the Sulitest on a large sample of students beginning this school year. Full player institutions commit to:
- Requesting that all of their students take the test
- Or requesting that all of their new incoming students take it
- Or getting at least 2,000 students to complete the test
If you think your college or university would be interested in being a full player, contact us.
Thanks to the full player institutions, but also thanks to all of you who bring a huge diversity of students (whatever the size of the cohort of students you have). We will be able to present a very interesting survey at the Nagoya meeting.
At this stage, we would like to remind you that the data used for this report will be collected before October 10th, so please try to organize as many sessions as possible before this date.
We hope to see many students from your university taking the test soon. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need any information and thanks for being part of this adventure.
All the best,
JC Carteron