Interview with Cecilia Lundberg

Below is a short interview with Cecilia Lundberg, in her role as one of the Theme Coordinator for the Education for Sustainable Development theme at the BUP Symposium 2020. Cecilia is moreover the BUP National Centre Director for Finland, hosted by Åbo Akademi University, Finland, where she is employed at the Centre For Lifelong Learning as an educational planner.

1. How did your interest in Education for Sustainable Development begin?

I have my background in marine biology, especially the state of eutrophication on a Baltic perspective. Through my former role as a more or less traditional university teacher, I started to get interested in didactics in higher education and more student-center and learning-center methodologies. As I, at the same time, have a more and deeper interest in issues of sustainable development, ESD is the perfect combination for me.

2. How do you work with Education for Sustainable Development today?

The BUP associate secretariat at Åbo Akademi University has ESD for teachers in higher education as our focus area. For example via our BUP teachers course, ESD in Higher Education, I come in contact with fantastic teachers in the Baltic Sea Region, and we all learn so much from each other, and share experience. Through this course I also had the opportunity to collaborate with Shepherd Urenje at SWEDESD, he is an expert in this field.

3. What goals do you have with your work?

I wish to be involved in spreading the knowledge of ESD and SDGs within higher education. It has a double multidisciplinary dimension, both in the subjects of the SDGs, but also in the near connection with the 21st century skills. It is a topic of the highest interest, which more and more people understand today. Therefore, I am proud to be part of the BUP, which was one of the first actors in this field.

4. What role do you think networks among universities in the Baltic Sea Region play in achieving these goals?

Networks like BUP act on a cross-country, regional level. It has a great value in connecting people within higher education in the Baltic Sea Region: sharing experience, learning from each other, learning together and creating new BUP networks.

5. What role do you see The Baltic University Programme has in collaboration between universities in the Baltic Sea Region?

The BSR is not the same as when BUP was founded in 1991. Still, I think, the connection and relation to our common Baltic Sea is a good starting point for interdisciplinary issues, as the Agenda 2030. Sometimes the national level is too narrow, but the global level too big. Then the regional perspective, as the BUP represents, is the perfect springboard.