4.3.1. Analysis of the Program from the Student Perspective

The first cohort of 18 SUD students began their studies in Autumn 2020. The students come from diverse backgrounds, including six different nationalities, and with both recent high school graduates and more mature students. Initial feedback collected form the students indicate a mixture of different long-term ambitions, with students hoping for careers in, for example, research and development or governmental organizations, while more than half have no clear career ambitions just yet. A key attraction of the program for the students was the interdisciplinary teaching, providing the students the opportunity to develop their interests in a subject area that they are passionate about.

To tease out students' understanding about transdisciplinarity, a reading group session was organized where the focus was on an article, "Imagining the post-fossil city: why is it so difficult to think of new possible worlds? [43]." One question that was reflected on in breakout rooms (with mixed participants from different streams) and together was "Keys to a post-fossil city: What perspectives or competencies need to be combined to create a walkable city?" in order to understand how students envision transdisciplinary approaches in a practical context. The answers varied from a need for a comprehensive understanding or a vision of sustainable urban development; understanding intended and unintended policy outcomes; behavioral patterns of humans; the art of nudging; understanding urban transportation systems; or the dimensions of urban green as social, ecological, and technical. The benefit of the discussion was that it demonstrated the multiple disciplinary angles needed when considering SUD.

Reflective thinking was encouraged in several ways during our first two courses. Students analyzed issues in learning diaries, where they reflected the contents of each lecture in relation to their own experiences. One of the issues of reflection was a debate exercise facilitated using game-based learning. One student wrote that, "I think that fully listening what another person is has to say can allow questions to arise, like why this person in thinking this way. Are there factors like age, culture or the media, that could be shaping their views? This exercise also showed me that other people's viewpoints are not wrong and perhaps I could examine my own." This quote illustrates the possibilities of transdisciplinarity, as the co-existence of three the disciplines in SUD demand a continuous reflection of disciplinary frames.


**Table 2.** Analysis of the SUD program.

To understand the views of students on how the degree could support their learning, we asked students, "How can you become an active agent in sustainable urban development?" and "How can university studies support you in this task?" and made an interactive Flinga mind map to record their responses. Some responses focused on skills such as "learning to make an argument in layman's terms" and "integration of technological solutions and understanding discourses and imageries". Other students focused on actions such

as "participating in municipal politics", "sharing spaces [such as saunas or maker-spaces) and items and repairing them", "supporting public transportation", "getting to know real life actors in urban development and their relationships", and "participate in events available to youth". The answers to the second question were in line to our thinking about project-based courses, as students mentioned "Urban Labs" as a possibility to meet real life SUD actors and networking and gain "knowledge about resources, where to get information, what to read and follow", which we believe is best tackled through co-operation between the university and real-world development projects. Finally, there was also an understandable wish to get "knowledge about future career options". The answers reflect first, the broad field of SUD a demand for integrative understanding, and second, the fact that many students are coming straight from high school to the SUD program and their professional futures are still somewhat uncertain.
