Roundtable at UET Peshawar: Call for adopting sustainable development part of curriculum

PESHAWAR: The panelists at a roundtable on Friday stressed the need for adopting sustainable development as part of curriculum at all levels of higher degree programmes.

The University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar and GIZ, the German development agency, had held the roundtable on “Paving the way for Sustainable Development”.

The purpose of the roundtable was to converge industry experts and academia on a single platform to discuss and pave the way for future investments under the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development. The panelists comprising of academia, experts from industry and civil society highlighted the fact that universities were important stakeholders in the implementation of agenda 2030 for sustainable development. They said Pakistan being a signatory to Agenda 2030 should expedite the work to achieve desired goals in which integration of all sectors was indispensable. The panelists urged the need to set up a caucus of Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC)’s already established in universities for identifying issues highlighted in SDG’s and move with a collective thought. UET Peshawar Vice Chancellor Dr Iftikhar Hussain speaking as a chief guest said that adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was a milestone to turn it into a huge success. He said concerted efforts from all sectors of the society, including universities and academia, were mandatory for effective implementation of Agenda 2030 effectively. While endorsing the need for curriculum on “sustainable development”, he directed the faculty to propose the contents of curriculum and present it before the statuary bodies for review and approved the idea of setting up the caucus of ORICs for further networking.