Working Group 5-1 at the IAU Durban Conference in 2000 focused on the role of universities in sustainable development. The group discussed adding a spiritual dimension to universities' traditional goals of knowledge and skills, integrating sustainable development into education policy and curricula from primary school through higher education, and practicing sustainable development within universities through policy, teaching, learning, and social activities. Key issues addressed were using IAU to solve sustainable development problems through cooperation and technology sharing, challenges of mass higher education like falling quality and brain drain, and retaining qualified people in developing countries to enable sustainable development.

1. IAU Durban Conference, August 20-25, 2000
11th General Conference: Universities as Gateway to the Future
Working Group V: Sustainable Development
Working Group 5-1
Chairman: B. Mazurkiewicz, Former Rector, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland.
Rapporteur: Li Yuee, Vice-President, Shanxi University, China
Add a spiritual dimension to the traditional quests of universities, that is knowledge and ability in
order to achieve sustainable development.
Integrate the policy and government philosophy towards university and society to support sustainable
development in higher education.
Sustainable development should be considered not only at university policy-making level, but also at
primary school and other education sectors, both public and private.
The role of university is to educate people and undertake research for sustainable development.
The role of university in relation to sustainable development should be to translate and demonstrate
theoretical ideas in ways that are meaningful and practical. That means putting sustainable
development into practice.
We all accept the keynote speaker’s (Dr Ismael Serageldin) definition of sustainability : that is to
create more opportunities for the next generation, because it is easy and practical for individuals to
follow.
In our universities we should consider sustainable development (from both broad and narrow sense) in
our policy-making, so that it covers curriculum design, teaching, learning and other social practice.
Key Issues :
IAU should act as a platform to discuss and solve the problems of sustainable development and to
promote co-operation as well as technology transfer between members.
Massification of higher education causes serious problems, especially in developing countries.
Amongst them are falling Quality, government cuts back on budgets, increasing tuition fees, right to
higher education, etc.
Brain drain problem : how are we to retain qualified people in developing countries in order to have
sustainable development?