Teachers from Central Asian universities trained in sustainability at SUA Nitra
13.11.2025
The Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra hosted a group of thirteen teachers from ten Central Asian universities from 3 to 6 November. In the premises of the Environmental Centre of SUA on Hospodárska Street, the participants learned how to integrate sustainability into their courses and study programmes.
Experts from SUA Nitra and Danube University Krems (Austria) trained university teachers and two rectors from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan to change their teaching approach towards sustainability-oriented education.
“At the beginning, they attended a lecture on the Sustainable Development Goals. Then, each participant selected one of their own subjects in which they would like to embed sustainability and assessed its current state. They also learned about different educational methods that help students better understand sustainability issues — and even tried some of them in practice,” explained Assoc. Prof. Tatiana Kaletová from the Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Engineering (FHLE).
Working in small groups, the teachers exchanged experiences, commented on each other’s ideas, and at the end presented their own proposals for the redesigned courses they had chosen.
“They learned the process themselves, which means they will be able to train their colleagues once they return home. Our task, besides training the teachers, is also to revise study plans and curricula at the participating universities. The aim is to help these institutions become local leaders in sustainability,” emphasized Assoc. Prof. Kaletová.
The guests were particularly impressed by the Environmental Centre, where they toured laboratories and the FHLE campus under Zobor Hill, and some also visited the SUA Riding Centre.
The four-day event was part of the international project Green Deal for Central Asian Universities, co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme. The project, involving 13 universities from eight countries including SUA in Nitra, is coordinated by Constructor University Bremen (Germany). At SUA, the project is coordinated by Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Internationalization, Dr. Lucia Palšová. The Slovak University of Agriculture is responsible for Work Package 3 – Education for Sustainability.
