SDGs and Undergraduate Learning: A Partnership Approach to Solving Real-World Problems

Dear Colleagues,

International student experiences, such as the Curtin Academy SDG New Colombo Plan (CA SDG NCP), are considered opportunities for students to travel overseas and explore new cultures whilst progressing their university degrees. The CA SDG NCP used design thinking pedagogy to support student teams in exploring real issues and problems in their local countries’ context. The intersectional teams drew on their undergraduate skills across all faculties to develop small scale, implementable solutions. Teams were invited to continue their research journeys supported by a participating academic, an academic in the area of the research, and suitably identified industry partners. The result was a series of solution-focused reports that could, with funding, be implemented, and the development of a students as partners (SaP) community to facilitate this further research.

This Special Issue discusses the use of design thinking pedagogy in an international student experience program to support student teams in developing real-world solutions to local problems. The lead paper discusses the challenges faced by students in developing implementable solutions and the role of partnership in overcoming these challenges using realistic evaluation design, and concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research for future international student experiences programs. The remaining papers, authored by undergraduate students and their partners, explore a vast array of issues through design thinking pedagogy to solve issues such as prolonging hydro dams’ lifespans by reducing sediment and addressing loneliness through an intergenerational model in Singapore.

Dr. Rekha Koul
Dr. Rachel Sheffield
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• SDGs
• undergraduate learning
• partnership
• design thinking
• international student experiences