From piecemeal to holistic: Introducing sustainability science in Indian Universities to attain UN-Sustainable Development Goals

The doctrine of Sustainability Science (SS) is widely acknowledged as a tool for attaining global sustainability and is becoming the core philosophy of national and international developmental agendas. Goal 4 of the United Nations-Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) clearly acknowledges the role education plays in the promulgation of Sustainable Development (SD) by acting as a thread that concatenates the other SDGs. Hence, it is gaining global popularity as an academic discipline. However, SS as a standalone course is yet to gain prominence in Indian education systems, even though certain principles and practices of this science have been included within existing courses like Environmental Sciences. The present work thus aimed to bridge the gap between SD and education through the incorporation of sustainability tenets within universities of India. The methodology involved an assessment of research dedicated towards environmental and social issues in India and identification of possible entry-points for SS within higher education through detailed scanning of the academic programs of various Central, State and Private Universities. Results indicated that none of the universities were offering SS and only half of the universities surveyed provided Environmental Sciences. Therefore, a template for SS syllabus relevant in the Indian context was designed. Besides, two models namely the 'infusion model' for introduction of SS as a separate academic course and the 'diffusion model' for customization of the existing courses by integrating the principles and practices of sustainability were also proposed. We conclude that the effective utilization of these models can propel the implementation of SS within Indian higher education for nurturing a future generation of students having sustainability ethos in their words and deeds for addressing the developmental challenges of India. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.