Abstrakt
Higher education institutions in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe over the past 20 years have faced multiple challenges associated with the transition period: liberalisation, transformation related to market economy requirements, growing numbers of students; and deep systemic changes related to the Bologna Process and inclusion within the European Higher Education Area. At the same time, general SD oriented policies faced many challenges as the former impetus for fundamental change disappeared while conversion to a market economy took place.
Within these processes, re-orientation of the former environmental policies to encompass broader sustainability concepts was based on the introduction of social sciences into the environmental discourse and support for excellence in (existing or newly emerging) SD-related disciplines – but remained on a disciplinary basis. Mistrust in interdisciplinary approaches and the failure in fulfilling of the “third role” of universities through multistakeholder cooperation is currently reinforced by educational & research policies, especially the criteria of academic excellence, the financial problems associated with growing demand for tertiary education and non-existent long term visions within educational policies, amended and insufficiently clarified foundations of academic dignity and authority, and accompanied by other negative features such as lack of attention paid to institutional management (which has a specifically negative impact on its sustainability performance).
To overcome these critical points, the authors recommend that attention is paid to the social capital of HE institutions; the ESD agenda (characterised by an inclusive approach towards different stakeholders) could then become an inspiration for the transformation of the whole HE system.