Background

The PEBES project – Pedagogies of Biodiversity and Environmental Sustainability – was created by merging the strengths and needs of four universities in three countries: Finland, Botswana, and Namibia. Our aim is that future professional teachers, educators and environmental experts gain transdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of dynamics related to biodiversity and sustainability, and how to apply this knowledge in the society with diverse pedagogical methods. It is only through tight collaboration among professionals from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds and with involvement of communities that the global challenges  of biodiversity loss and unsustainability can be faced.

The project is funded by the Finnish National Agency of Education, under the Team Finland Knowledge (TFK) programme. The purpose of TFK is to create and strengthen cooperation between Finnish higher education institutions and the target regions and countries selected to the TFK network, and to design new operating models for cooperation.

Namibia, represented by The University of Namibia, was a part of the PEBES project during 09/2022 – 09/2023.

We will carry out four main activities during the project.

1. We  will open selected, mostly online courses to be available freely for students of the Partner universities.
2. We  will plan and implement assignments for international student teams, supervised by each Partner university. The team work includes short mobilities to target countries both for students and staff.
3. We will produce a series of online lectures on the theme of the project.
4. We will prepare a roadmap for future collaboration among the four universities.