Beyond the Sum of Parts: Integrating Inner and Outer Transformation in Higher Education

Beyond the Sum of Parts: Integrating Inner and Outer Transformation in Higher Education

How can higher education prepare students not only to understand sustainability challenges, but to become capable of contributing to transformative change? This talk presents a comparative analysis of educational competency frameworks across seven European universities, exploring how they address inner capacities alongside technical and professional competencies.

Drawing on the Inner-Outer Transformation Model and the Education Tree, the study examines how frameworks such as the Inner Development Goals (IDG) can help bridge cognitive, emotional, and relational learning. The findings highlight the importance of experiential learning, vertical development, psychosocially safe learning environments, and process-based forms of assessment.

The talk discusses how inner development can be integrated into the core of higher education rather than treated as an additional or separate module—and how this integration can support students in becoming transformative change agents for sustainability.

Lars Rademacher is Professor of Corporate and Sustainability Communication at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and heads its Doctoral Centre for Sustainability Sciences. His research spans communication ethics, corporate responsibility, and the role of communication in social and ecological change. He co-edited CSR Communication in the Media (2023) and Nachhaltigkeit in der Medienkommunikation (2025). His recent publications examine situational crisis communication theory and how transformative learning can prepare communication professionals (both 2026).