Unite! is a European University alliance of universities started in 2019 focused on engineering, innovation and technology financed by the Erasmus Plus and H2020 programs. Its key objective is to become a strong driving force to trigger the advance of a green and digital Europe through technology and innovation. It wants to transform European higher education into an innovative, and multidisciplinary education where the co-creation between student and staff enhances its importance. Moreover, it is focused into 4 big areas:
- Sustainable Energy.
- Artificial Intelligence.
- Industry 4.0.
- Entrepreneurship [1]
The alliance is formed by the following universities:
- Aalto University.
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
- Wroclaw Tech, Wroclaw.
- Technical University of Darmstadt.
- Graz University of Technology.
- Grenoble INP-UGA.
- Politecnico di Torino.
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
- Universidade de Lisboa.
Graz University of Technology (Austria) and Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Poland) were added to the project in the end of 2021 and their partnership will be complete by the end of 2022.
In the caption, it is shown all universities and its geographical location:
Source: https://www.unite-university.eu/our-alliance/partnersThe projects inside Unite! are divided into the ones responding to Erasmus+ funding and the Horizon 2020 program funding. On one hand, for Erasmus+, 17 alliances were selected for the 3 years pilot phase. On the other hand, 23 alliances were formed under “Science with and for Society” 2nd call in 2020 for the funding of Horizon 2020 program [2].
The work packages (WP) of each one of the projects are:
Source: https://www.unite-university.eu/our-alliance/european-universities-initiative/h2020
In long term, the objective of Unite! is to create a guideline for introduce education on ethics and sustainability in the selected degrees of the network and a repository of material shareable by the Unite! Members. This guideline is intended to facilitate the incorporation of ethics and sustainability in the study programs.
In the following sections, current efforts of each universities in trying to introduce sustainability and ethics in ICT engineering studies will be revised, with the exception of BarcelonaTech which is fully discussed in ICT bachelor's degree at UPC part.
Aalto University
Aalto University located in Espoo, Finland, has established a new strategy at the start of 2021 to set firmly on building a sustainable future [3]. Among its studies programmes, the more connected to ICT engineering is Aalto Bachelor's Programme in Science and Technology - Digital Systems and Design.
The degree does not have any sustainability related subject, except for “Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management” which could incorporate topics of sustainable economics [4].
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
KTH Royal Institute of Technology is located in Stockholm, Sweden. As results of its commitment to sustainability, the university’s operations are certified with standard ISO14001 (international environmental management certification standard) [5]. Furthermore, KTH makes an effort to incorporate sustainability in its educational programmes and researches, as well as make interactions with local communities.
Regarding ICT, the bachelor degree related is BSc Information and Communication Technology [6]. Among its subjects, the ones with sustainability topics are:
- Mandatory course: ME1003 Industrial Management, Basic Course. Present in the third year it incorporates social sustainability with the topic “Human resource management and leadership” and economic sustainability with the areas: “Product costing” and “Annual report and financial analysis” [7]
- Mandatory course: II143X Degree Project in Information and Communication Technology, First Cycle. It is indicated that the following knowledge should be achieve by the students through the course: “demonstrate an understanding of the role of the knowledge and the technology in the society and the people's responsibility of how these are used” [8]
- Recommended course: ME2016 Project Management: Leadership and Control. In this elective course the student will learn about and how to use tools such as risk management, project budgeting and project monitoring, stakeholder’s knowledge and environmental management [9].
Overall, sustainability is integrated in all programmes of KTH university. The concrete SDG incorporated in this degree are 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) [10].
Wroclaw Tech
The Wroclaw Tech located in Wroclaw, Poland counts with a 5 bachelor’s degree and a large master’s degree offer [11].
The university does not have any related ICT engineering bachelor’s degree. But it has 2 engineering study programmes: Electronic and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Regarding sustainability, the Mechanical Engineering programme incorporates it through a mandatory course: Ecology. Any sustainability related course is found in the actual curriculum of Electronic and Computer Engineering study programme [12].
Technical University of Darmstadt
The Technical University of Darmstadt founded in 1877, it has been one of the most international universities in Germany as well as a European technical university. It is located in Darmstadt and counts with 118 degree programmes [13].
In terms of sustainability, as well as being part of Unite! Network, it has a research group named Sustainability Assessment Group. It is focused on material flow analysis, LCA (life cycle assessment), and alternative analysis [14]. Furthermore, they are doing efforts to incorporate sustainability in each programmes, as Professor Dr. Tanja Brühl, President of TU Darmstadt said “Sustainability to me is to take responsibility for every future generation. Everyone can contribute - whether in their private lives, in their studies or in a professional context. As TU Darmstadt, we also take responsibility for a sustainable future.” [15].
Graz University of Technology
Located at Styria, Austria and founded in 1811, TU Graz counts with more than 20 bachelor’s degree. As an effort to achieve sustainability in the university, being a pioneer of Austria’s universities, TU Graz is in the path of being climate neutral by 2030. It is being done with the collaboration of staff and students by defining and achieving climate targets including specific measures of them [17].
The bachelor’s degree Programme in Information and Computer Engineering is the most related with ICT engineering. The study programme focuses on 4 areas: basics of information and computer engineering, electrical and computer engineering, information technology and humanities and bachelor’s thesis work. In relation to the last focus area, it is indicated that: “You will learn to think in interdisciplinary ways and address economic, social and ethical questions related to the field of Information and Computer Engineering. You will learn how to work scientifically and to write a bachelor’s thesis” [18].
Grenoble INP-UGA
Located in Grenoble, France, the Grenoble INP-UGA counts with over 8,500 students and awarded every year approximately 1,500 engineering masters, 1 100 research masters and 230 doctorates [19].
It does not have any ICT engineering bachelor’s degree, nevertheless it offers a master programme related: Master of Science in Communications Engineering and Data Science (CoDaS). This particular master offers the opportunity to join the Unite! Network and study one year in Aalto University and another year in Técnico Lisboa [20].
Politecnico di Torino
The University Politecnico di Torino is located in Turin, Italy. Its bachelor offer is formed by approximately 40 bachelor’s degree [21].
The university counts with an ICT bachelor’s degree: Bachelor in Electronic and Communications Engineering [22]. In relation to sustainability, any mandatory courses were found in actual curricula. Nonetheless, it has a wide offer of elective courses, where the following ones are related to environmental, economic and/or social sustainability:
- Cities, infrastructure and climate change (Città, infrastrutture e cambiamento climatico).
- Climate crisis and cognitive bias (Crisi climatica e bias cognitivi).
- Evidence, models and perception of climate change (Evidenze, modelli e percezione del cambiamento climatico).
- The sea and the green transition (Il mare e la transizione verde).
- The society of sustainability (La società della sostenibilità).
- Sustainable urban mobility (Mobilità urbana sostenibile).
- Sustainability and responsibility (Sostenibilità e responsabilità).
- Energy, progress and sustainability (Energia, progresso e sostenibilità).
- Climate and socio-economic changes (Cambiamenti climatici e socio economici).
- Photovoltaic and wind generation of electricity (Generazione fotovoltaica ed eolica di energia elettrica) [23].
Universidade de Lisboa
The ULisboa (Universidade de Lisboa, in portuguese) is located in Lisboa, Portugal and it is the biggest Portugal university. It is considered as an international university that counts every year with more than 9000 foreign students, approximately 17,8% of the total of students. In relation with sustainability it counts with a PhD programme in Sustainability Science that contributes to the immersion of the university in the sustainability teaching.
The most ICT related bachelor programme is the degree in Telecommunications and Informatics Engineering [24]. It counts with the following mandatory course: 1st Cycle Integrated Project in Telecommunications and Informatics Engineering. This subject has mentions of sustainability teaching such as critical and innovative Thinking, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, present and discuss a technical report [25]. Furthermore, it also contains some related to sustainability elective courses:
- Introductory Economics: introduces concepts such as economic growth, globalization, inequality, innovation, as long as the role of the economy in climate change, social responsibility and sustainability in general. The main objective is to provide an understanding of the economic environment of ICT engineers [26].
- Management: seeks to encourage the students to have an active role in sustainable growth of organizations, with a particular focus in: ethics culture, and organizational structure [27].