Case Study - Embarking Students on a Sustainability Journey at JUNIA
Founded in 1885, JUNIA is a renowned engineering school committed to energy, urban, industrial and digital transitions. With a diverse student body and cutting-edge programs, JUNIA prepares future engineers to tackle global challenges.
At JUNIA, sustainability is woven into the fabric of education, ensuring that graduates are not only technically proficient but also environmentally conscious. The integration of tools like TASK™ into the curriculum underscores JUNIA's dedication to fostering responsible and impactful leaders in engineering and beyond, which aligns with our shared mission to drive positive change through education.
A robust, measurable tool for measuring sustainability knowledge.
A core part of their mission lies in educating their future engineers on how sustainability challenges are interconnected.
In light of their success with deploying the TOEIC and the benefits it provided in equipping their graduates for the international job market, they opted to make TASK™ a pedagogical requirement for graduation, as a robust and standardized way to measure the sustainability knowledge of their students.
“As we are a group of engineering schools, we had already deployed TOEIC, and to obtain their diploma, students were required to achieve a certain score.
It became clear that we lacked a robust and uniform tool to measure the real impact of our program when it came to sustainable development. That's why we needed a solution. [...] TASK™ is an invaluable tool for assessing the quality and relevance of our training in ecological and societal transition issues and solutions.
By integrating TASK™ into the curriculum, at the end of a series of courses on sustainable development issues, and before the end of their bachelor's degree, we can measure the real impact of our program,”
stated Johanne Gea, CSR Project Manager at JUNIA Engineering School.
Pioneer Change Leader: Playing a part in the radical, systemic change of higher education
Setting the foundation for a successful roll out, JUNIA engaged its staff in the TASK™ pilot. “We told them they had the opportunity to participate in the construction of the teaching tool by taking the draft version. This was the first step, and they really enjoyed participating. As a next step, the sustainability department worked alongside a Head of Programme, to offer TASK™ to the entire cohort of this programme, following their course on sustainable development. This proved to be a success, which supported the roll out of the initiative across the school” she added.
In 2022, JUNIA became one of the first 20 pioneering institutions to commit to certifying the majority of their graduates in three years. By rising to the challenge, JUNIA earned the recognition of TASK™ "Change Leader".
“Oddyssée”: a sustainable learning journey
To educate their students about sustainability and prepare them for TASK™, JUNIA created a gamified learning platform called “Oddyssée,” a play on the French term for SDGs (ODD) and the concept of a learning journey.
In this experience, each sustainability theme is represented as an island that students must discover, along with quizzes that they are to complete in order to move to the next island. This platform serves as a playful, yet comprehensive training tool on sustainability issues which students from multiple programmes utilize before taking TASK™.
After taking TASK™, students are then encouraged to analyze their individual reports to identify areas for improvement. Additionally, JUNIA scrutinizes this data with the goal of refining both the Oddyssée content and their core curriculum on sustainability.
“We intend to use the results to identify areas for improvement in Oddysée and overall courses content throughout the school. By refining the content, we aim to enhance the overall educational experience. We are also exploring ways to make students take the test at different points during their education, to track and improve their scores. Additionally, last year we worked on JUNIA engineer skills, which include sustainable development, climate, CSR, and more, and in the future, we hope to better connect these skills to the assessment.”
Integrating sustainability with TASK™, the many benefits
The integration of TASK™ has had significant benefits for both faculty and students.
According to Johanne, professors who previously viewed sustainability as a separate subject are now recognizing connections between sustainability and their own disciplines. This fosters collaboration across departments, with many professors themselves expressing interest in learning how to integrate sustainability concepts more effectively into their courses.
“For example, my colleagues from the economics, agriculture, sustainable agriculture, and food departments see more opportunities for collaboration. Some have [even] asked for specific training on teaching different economic systems. I feel that this is only the beginning, but it helps foster cooperation. For students, they understand the links between various subjects better because, with TASK™, they see how interconnected all these themes are, rather than viewing each as just another separate course or skill,”
she further explained.
The future of sustainable education at JUNIA
With interdepartmental collaboration, and an increased interest by the professional corps in sustainability issues, JUNIA is on the fast track to creating a more holistic curriculum for the engineers of tomorrow.
When asked if she would recommend TASK™ to other higher education institutions, Johanne stated:
“This is exactly what we tell other schools when we discuss TASK™, such as when we participate in groups like CIRSES or the CSR teams within the France Agro³. We emphasize that TASK™ is a valuable tool for assessing the quality and relevance of our sustainability education. Its key features include repeatability, robustness, consistency, and frequent updates. It helps us evaluate our students' sustainability knowledge and measure the real impact of our program, ensuring our graduates have the skills needed to meet major transition challenges.”
Interested in starting your journey towards integrating sustainability at your institution? Contact us today! The Sulitest team is on standby to accompany you with the necessary tools and resources every step of the way.
