GDH Partner Days 2026: Deepening challenge driven education and collaboration (2–6 March)
From 2–6 March, partners from African partner universities in the KTH Global Development Hub (GDH) network met in Stockholm for a week of intensive work on Challenge-Driven Education (CDE), mobility, and long-term collaboration. The week combined structured workshops, strategic discussions, and social activities, all aimed at sharing experiences and co-creating a roadmap for the next phase of the partnership.
Day 1 – Teaching and Learning Through Challenge‑Driven Education (Monday 2 March)
The day opened with a brief introduction to Challenge-Driven Education (CDE), framing it within sustainable development and the GDH partnership. CDE was defined by working with real societal challenges, multi-disciplinary student-stakeholder teams, and dual focus on learning and impact.
Students shared how CDE courses transformed them increased confidence with "wicked problems," stakeholder collaboration skills, and new sustainability career paths making CDE's value vivid and personal.
Teachers then exchanged experiences from existing courses, discussing challenge framing, stakeholder roles, assessment challenges, and successes like high student motivation.
Exchange of experiences from existing CDE courses
Building on the framing and student perspectives, the next part of the day moved into structured exchanges between teachers and coordinators of existing CDE courses. Participants worked in groups and used shared canvases or templates to present their courses and modules. For each course, they discussed:
- The context and target students.
- How challenges are identified and framed.
- How stakeholders are involved during the course (kick‑off, mid‑reviews, final presentations, etc.).
- How assessment is done, especially in relation to teamwork and individual learning.
- What has worked particularly well and what has been difficult.
This was not just “show and tell”; it was a critical and supportive peer review. Colleagues asked concrete questions, suggested alternatives, and recognised common patterns. For example, many courses showed:
- Strong student motivation when the challenge felt real and stakeholders took them seriously.
- Difficulties in aligning stakeholder expectations with course timelines and academic requirements.
- Tensions between assessing the team deliverable and fairly assessing individual contributions.
By the end of this exchange, participants had identified strengths to build on and recurring challenges that needed to be addressed at course and institutional level.
Afternoon workshops: deep dives and educator support
In the afternoon, the focus shifted to deeper thematic discussions and to supporting educators. One block of discussions used real course cases to explore three core topics:
- Stakeholder collaboration: How to find partners, set expectations, handle drop‑outs, and build long‑term relationships.
- Assessment: How to design assessment that reflects both competence development and team‑based work.
- Sustainability competencies: How to integrate systems thinking, critical reflection, and futures thinking into CDE projects, rather than treating sustainability as an add‑on.
Another block zoomed in on the needs of educators themselves. Participants talked about:
- What ongoing support CDE teachers receive after initial training.
- Which barriers they face (time, recognition, administrative load, lack of structures).
- What kinds of institutional support, communities of practice, and training formats would help them sustain and develop CDE in the long run.
The day ended with a plenary synthesis, where groups reported back key insights and suggestions. These outputs became inputs for the strategy discussions that followed on later days.
Day 2 – Strategies for CDE at Programme and Institutional Levels (Tuesday 3 March)
Day 2, hosted in Multihallen at Valhallavägen 79, moved from individual courses to the bigger picture: how to weave CDE into programmes, institutions, and cross‑institutional collaborations.
In the morning, a recap of Day 1 set the stage, and the first breakout focused on “mainstreaming” CDE in curriculum development. Participants discussed what CDE means when integrated across a whole programme, where it can appear (introductory courses, capstones, vertical project tracks), and what institutional constraints and opportunities exist. They also explored how to let students progressively engage with “wicked problems” throughout their studies, instead of meeting them only in a single final course.
After lunch, Breakout 2 centred on joint labs. Participants co‑created visions for collaborative labs across universities, asking:
- Which actors (students, teachers, stakeholders) should be involved?
- What infrastructure and resources are needed (physical spaces, digital platforms, funding)?
- How should governance and evaluation be organised to ensure equity and long‑term societal impact?
By the end of the day, the group had a clearer shared vision of what cross‑university labs could look like and how they could support CDE and broader missions like sustainability and transformation.
Day 3 – Strategic Mobility for Mutual Capacity Building (Wednesday 4 March)
On Day 3 at OpenLab, the focus was on mobility as a strategic tool for mutual capacity building. Participants looked at mobility statistics since 2017 and listened to students describing how exchanges and joint projects had shaped their perspectives and skills.
Group work then mapped the value of mobility at:
- Individual level (skills, confidence, networks).
- Institutional level (new courses, joint supervision, shared practices).
- Global level (more symmetrical partnerships, shared understanding of challenges).
Finally, participants identified gaps and proposed strategic improvements: better preparation and follow‑up, stronger alumni engagement, and clearer links between mobility and joint educational initiatives such as CDE courses and labs.
Day 4 – Cultural Exchange and Informal Networking (Thursday 5 March)
Day 4 was devoted to social and cultural activities, with visits to Nordiska Museet and Lejondals Slott. The aim was to deepen cultural understanding and allow partners to connect informally.
The museum visit, including the exhibition on Folkhemmet, gave insight into Swedish social history and values, offering context for how Swedish institutions and education have developed. Conversations continued during travel and meals, linking these impressions back to participants’ own institutional and national contexts.
At Lejondals Slott, the group had time for informal networking, shared dinner, and reflections on the week so far. This relaxed environment helped strengthen the trust and personal relationships that are essential for long‑term collaboration.
Day 5 – Wrapping Up and Partnership Roadmap (Friday 6 March)
The final day at Lejondals Slott focused on bringing everything together into a shared roadmap. In the morning, participants revisited key insights from each day: the concrete experiences of CDE and student impact, strategies for curricula and joint labs, and the role of mobility and cultural understanding.
Groups then worked on identifying priorities for the GDH partnership, including:
- How to support and scale CDE courses and programmes.
- How to jointly develop and test lab concepts and other shared structures.
- How to design mobility and alumni activities that reinforce these educational and strategic goals.
These discussions led to a draft roadmap outlining key activities, responsibilities, and principles for the coming period. After lunch, the group travelled back to Stockholm, with time for side meetings and planning next steps.
