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M. Dolores Ramirez-Verdugo, Madrid Autonomous University, SpainAbstract
Higher education institutions are increasingly called to respond to global challenges such as climate change, inequality, and social fragmentation. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights the urgency of embedding sustainability into curricula, yet achieving this goal requires more than disciplinary knowledge: it demands pedagogies that foster civic responsibility, intercultural competence, and communicative agency. This paper presents a transdisciplinary initiative developed within the European Civic University Alliance (CIVIS). First implemented in Madrid and later expanded to Stockholm and Athens, the program explored inclusive and sustainable cities through challenge-based learning. By foregrounding language, culture, and civic participation, the initiative provided students with opportunities to engage in collaborative projects of real-world relevance, emphasizing dialogue and intercultural exchange as central to sustainability learning. Qualitative findings indicate that students developed a greater awareness of sustainability issues, enhanced their intercultural and communicative skills, and strengthened their capacity to collaborate toward achieving social justice. Importantly, the international dimension of the program demonstrated how transnational collaboration enriches learning, fostering solidarity across cultural and linguistic borders. The paper argues that higher education must position intercultural communication at the core of sustainability education. By integrating applied linguistics and civic engagement into transdisciplinary frameworks, universities can equip students to become critical, reflective, and responsible agents of change, capable of addressing complex global challenges in inclusive and transformative ways.
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