* carry out a sustainability assessment for a real-life case as part of a project team;
* develop an integrated description of a complex societal problem;
* identify and formulate policy options/ strategies to deal with such problems;
* assess and compare alternative policy options;
* formulate recommendations for the relevant client/ policy makers;
* advise on ex-post monitoring, evaluation and learning;
* reflect on the sustainability assessment process and draw lessons from it

The Sustainability Assessment project requires students to compare, combine and integrate different concepts, methods and tools, and transferring them to the case study context in order to develop a sound research plan, which will be carried out by the student project team during the course. In groups, students will further develop essential skills and sharpen their ability to design, conduct and evaluate a sustainability assessment on a real-life case study. Ample attention will be paid to the challenges that can emerge when applying these methods and tools in practice. This includes dealing with uncertainty, incomplete information, data quality, indicators, critical assumptions, different perspectives etc. Moreover, the relations between the selected tools (‘how tools work together’) will be discussed. The students will be coached on the contents and scientific quality of their assessment and on their skills in conducting integrative research. At the end of the course, project work and results (including policy recommendations) will be presented in student presentations and project reports.

This course is designed around the Project-Centred Learning (PCL) educational model, in which students work together in a project team on a specific sustainability case study. Just as Problem-Based Learning, the PCL model is small scaled and student oriented. Building on previous courses, lessons learned are applied to a typical sustainability issue (case study) and associated research question(s) chosen at the beginning of the course.

* SSP2062 Methodology for Sustainability Assessment