From: "Prof. Walter Leal Filho"Subject: International Symposium: Higher Education for Sustainable Regional Development I thought this information might be of interest for some colleagues. Walter Leal Filho International Symposium: Higher Education for Sustainable Regional Development The Symposium will be held from May 17 to 19 at SchloČ Seggau (Seggau Castle) in the vine growing region of Southern Styria, Austria. The event is meant to contribute to the discussion about education for sustainable regional development. It will focus on higher (academic) education, although the discussion is also relevant for other levels of training. It is the objective of the symposium to intensify the exchange of ideas about sustainable regional development education as well as to suggest innovative ways to improve education in this field and to initiate international co-operation in order to prepare students optimally for their tasks of implementing sustainable development on the regional level. The Symposium will feature a number of short oral presentations and allow for intensive discussions in workshops. The first day will be dedicated to the comparison between different curricula for bachelor, masters and doctoral studies. The workshops at the end of this day will deal with the questions concerning the necessary goals and content of curricula in this field. The second day will be dedicated to innovative teaching methods and new forms of organisation for sustainable regional development studies. The workshops on this day will evaluate these new approaches regarding their capability to prepare students for their complex tasks in implementing sustainable regional development. They will also discuss possibilities of international co-operation in this field. In order to allow for effective discussion during the Symposium, proceedings will be prepared summarising the most important messages of the contributions. The discussions at the symposium will be evaluated and summarised in due course after the meeting and will form the core of an internet discussion panel on this topic. The Symposium will be jointly organised by ENSURE (http://www.european.association.org) SUSTAIN(http://scc.co.at/sustain) and "Haus der Region Feldbach". The Advisory Board of ENSURE acts as scientific committee for the Symposium. The local organisation will be in the hands of SUSTAIN. Participants will stay at the castle itself, the enchanting surrounding will add to the atmosphere of the Symposium. For further information, please contact: Sibylle Braunegg SUSTAIN Inffeldgasse 21 A 8010 Graz Tel: +43-316-873-7465, Fax: +43-316-873-7469 e-mail: braunegg@glvt.tu-graz.ac.at ------------------------------