VCSE Guidebook/Introduction/The VCSE Project: main goals and objectives

The “Virtual Campus for a Sustainable Europe” tackles the need to address the complex process of integrating principles of sustainable development at the different levels and areas of policy in line with the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. There is a real need to engage with current and future decision-makers and opinion-creators in order to develop and implement effective strategies for mainstreaming sustainable development principles in policy. Higher Education Institutes are well placed to contribute to this process of engagement. The Virtual Campus for a Sustainable Europe makes the most of information and communication technologies to provide tools for the mainstreaming process.

The overall goal of the VCSE project is to contribute to building a knowledge based society for a sustainable Europe.

By developing an educational model, VCSE will contribute to the mainstreaming of sustainable development principles in multiple sectors.

The educational model created by the project
 * is flexible in meeting the needs of national contexts while being a relevant model for universities across Europe
 * engages relevant actors from academic, governmental and non-governmental sectors in discussion on how to most effectively implement sustainable development principles.

The “Virtual Campus for a Sustainable Europe” project successfully inter-relates the complex issue of sustainable development education at a European level with the use of ICT technologies and tools, by implementing a multi-dimensional approach that is addressed to both the academic community and the local/regional actors and decision-makers. An already existing successful VSCE-model is offered for free-trial and “test-it-yourself” demonstration -in addition to technical support and an optional open source e-learning platform- to any interested party via the extensive and prestigious national, European and international VCSE-partners’ network.