Sustainability embedded in UAS Amsterdam (HvA) Business Administration
Context
Sustainability has been a priority at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) for years, but within Business Administration it was mainly covered in separate courses and electives. In 2024, the program decided to embed Socially Responsible Conduct (MVH) across all courses and years. The challenge was to make the theme concrete and subject-specific for teaching teams across disciplines, from Operations Management to Strategy and Finance. At the same time, it needed to remain relevant for students who were not automatically interested in sustainability.
Approach
TheRockGroup supported the program in embedding Socially Responsible Conduct (MVH) throughout the curriculum. Together with the faculty’s project leaders, we mapped existing courses and worked with participating teaching teams. In two rounds, the teams built a shared understanding of sustainability and explored its relevance to their respective disciplines.
Our work included:
- Reformulating learning objectives, activities and assessment forms where needed, using the principle of constructive alignment.
- Reviewing the learning pathway across courses and years to enable students to build sustainability knowledge and skills step by step.
- Developing student personas and discipline-specific approaches to make sustainability relevant across the curriculum.
- Supporting lecturer ownership and anchoring MVH in the program’s policy and vision.
Impact
Socially Responsible Conduct (MVH) is now a full learning pathway running through every year of the Business Administration program. All relevant courses have added new elements or adapted existing ones, while teaching teams are now equipped to continue developing the theme themselves.
