Education for the Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Evidence from Greece

Abstract

This paper investigates the Education for Sustainable Development in international and Greek Universities. It further aims to investigate how Greek students comprehend the Sustainable Development (SD) issues and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and support, as future managers, its added value concerning the environmental, social and corporate governance management in the Greek Business Community. For this purpose, a literature review and a field research among Greek Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) students has been conducted. The field research and other relevant researches conclude that the Greek HEIs have followed the international trends and started implementing CSR and Sustainable Development courses in their curriculum. Furthermore, they state that SD and CSR courses are very important for the shaping of a business ethics management, an environmentally friendly behavior and promote the stakeholders interests. Moreover, the field researches find there are strong parallels between the CSR orientation of Greek students and students and managers in other countries. For this reason, Greek Companies could play a significant role at this point, by allowing students to participate in their CSR initiatives. For Greek Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) and students the SD and CSR, is more than just another scientific subject, as it is a way of completely altering existing way of business management, decision making and market behavior. Therefore, Greek Higher Educational Institutions and students argue that Sustainable Development and CSR are not issues that concern only academic and the corporate world but constitute a greater idea that everyone has to embrace.