Purpose -To date, little attention has been given to the circumstances in which the process of developing key competencies for sustainable development may take place. The purpose of this paper is to consider, the possibilities both of formal and informal learning and their relationship to competence development within higher education. Design/methodology/approach -An explorative, qualitative study based on focus groups was designed using different groups from formal and informal learning settings. Findings -The development of key competencies is based both on cognitive and non-cognitive dispositions and asks for multiple contexts. Through combining formal and informal learning settings within higher education -as part of a new learning culture -a variety of contexts can be given and competence development can be enhanced. Research limitations/implications -While aspects of both formal and informal learning settings could be identified, the interdependencies between them remain elusive. Practical implications -Based on the findings, some main aspects for acquiring competencies can be pointed out that may be crucial in higher education settings. Originality/value -The paper analyses the implications for both formal and informal learning settings of new ways of developing key competencies within higher education. Particular attention is given to interdisciplinarity and students' self-responsibility.

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An important issue in open agent systems such as the Internet is the discovery of service providers by potential consumers (requesters). This paper is concerned with services that involve the ongoing provision of up-to-date information to requesters. We explore three separate issues: subscription to an information provider for ongoing provision of information; monitoring for new information providers; and maintaining awareness of when providers disappear from the system. We explore several models for how this functionality may best be provided, with emphasis on the ways in which certain choices affect the overall system; and provide an analysis of preferred design options for environments with different characteristics.

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Learning to change universities from within: a service-learning perspective on promoting sustainable consumption in higher education

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Sustainability issues are typically characterized by high complexity and uncertainty. In light of this, communication plays a crucial role in coping with these challenges. The previous debate on sustainability communication has largely focused on how to communicate sustainability issues to others. Sustainability communication, however, involves more than sender oriented communication to persuade others (-communication of sustainability‖); it also embraces processes of dialogue and discourse (-communication about sustainability‖). Based on this distinction, we develop a typology of communication modes, including communication for sustainability. Inspired by the notion of functional communication systems, we explore sustainability communication in six societal subsystems, applying the typology of communication modes. Drawing mostly on examples from Germany, we find a shift from -communication of‖ towards -communication about‖ sustainability in most subsystems. While communication subsystems have a tendency towards operational closure, a variety of interlinkages exist. We discuss three key areas of -opening up‖ communication subsystems, leading to transdisciplinarity, societal deliberation and governance, each meeting one of sustainability's core challenges.