Alternative University Appraisal (AUA)

The Alternative University Appraisal (AUA) project, launched in June 2009, and created a new collaborative system to enable colleges, universities and other higher education institutions to better assess their education for sustainable development (ESD) activities. Proposed by Hokkaido University as a joint ProSPER.Net initiative, the AUA project also created a learning community to advance ESD, in which higher education institutions can consult and share concerns, as well as best practices.

The AUA system consisted of three components: Self-Awareness Questions (SAQs); Benchmarking Indicators Questions (BIQs); and Dialogue. SAQs and BIQs served as a data source and make up the foundation for dialogue among universities. Dialogue was the component through which the institutions shared concerns, best practices and generally foster an ESD learning community. In addition to these three components, the AUA project also created an ESD Archive, which is a repository of ESD activities conducted by higher education institutions.

The project was funded by ProSPER.Net, as well as Hokkaido University and the International Cooperative Initiative 2009–2011 of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

  • Project members

Hokkaido University (secretariat for the AUA project), Asian Institute of Technology, TERI Univerisity, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Yonsei University, the University of Tokyo, UNU-IIST, UNU-IAS

  • Publications

Working paper (coming soon)