Centring Sustainability for Curriculum Redevelopment: Case Study of a Joint Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering Program

Sustainability presents intricate challenges, revealing significant gaps between current engineering capabilities and societal needs. Previous research highlights notable progress in integrating environmental sustainability within engineering education. Despite this progress, not all disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts have integrated sustainability successfully; in particular, there is a lack of cohesive integration and sustainability appears as a solitary course within the curriculum. In this practice paper we report on an effort to not only effectively integrate sustainability but use it as a catalyst for engaging and educating stakeholders, encouraging them to question existing structures, methodologies, and values within the intention to facilitate a fundamental paradigm shift in program development. Our case comes from an MSc program in Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering at a Nordic university, initially a brute-force merger of two disciplines, neither rooted in the concept of strong sustainability. By combining faculty workshops, surveys, and interviews, significant curriculum advancements were achieved. The revised program features a cohesive structure where core courses transcend traditional silos through a common thematic thread of strong sustainability. Moreover, a continuous assessment process was established through semesterlevel and course-level surveys, and alumni focus groups. Insights from this work include program-content changes emphasizing a unified framework and targeted outcomes. Integrating sustainability at the core of the MSc program has profoundly impacted curriculum design, while stakeholders express a strong desire to engage with the program, reflecting its transformative potential. The revised program induces engineering identity changes emphasizing planetary wellbeing and social justice, rooted in post-growth values of cooperation, solidarity, regeneration, care and hope.