HEADing for Higher Education Sustainability: A Case of Cross-Border Student Cooperation

Abstract

The case study investigates how diversity management can be strategically embedded within international higher education initiatives advancing students’ capacity to develop innovative that promote solutions social responsibility. Adopting the Higher Education Awareness of Diversity (HEAD Wheel) framework, it analyses a transnational Erasmus+ summer school programme carried out within the Erasmus+ KA2 project Critical Incidents in Intercultural Communication and Promoting Diversity (CIICPD), and explores how language and intercultural communication programmes can leverage cross-border cooperation to build students’ intercultural competence and social responsibility.  Five European institutions collaborated on sustainability-focused student team projects that addressed campus greening student initiatives proposed and developed through international teamwork. Using a mixed-methods design including document analysis, critical incident narratives, and student reflections, the study examines how multiple dimensions of diversity – demographic, disciplinary, cognitive, functional, and institutional – shape learning in interdisciplinary, cross-border contexts. The Green University project, thus, showcases a scalable pedagogical model integrating diversity awareness with sustainability-oriented curriculum design. Students developed locally adaptable environmental solutions while strengthening intercultural communication, collaborative problem solving, and global social responsibility. Although context-specific, this study suggests a transferable pedagogical approach advancing internationalisation through inclusive, experiential, and impact-driven learning aligned with the Erasmus+ priorities and HEIs’ third mission goals. As such, it offers a novel and impact-driven framework for integrating diversity management with sustainability education in HE. The context-dependent nature of this single case study, however, should be acknowledged, as the programme's hybrid implementation, necessitated by the COVID-19 restrictions, may have partially influenced the interaction dynamics on which the findings are based.