Introduction: Higher education institutions face increasing pressure to bridge the gap between academic preparation and real-world professional demands. Project-based learning (PBL) has been recognised as a promising pedagogical strategy to foster authentic competency development and strengthen university–community connections. However, empirical evidence on its systematic implementation in Education Sciences undergraduate programmes remains relatively scarce. This study reports a case study on the redesign of a higher education course unit through a PBL framework anchored in real organisational contexts.

Methods: A descriptive case study was conducted. Twenty-five undergraduate students enrolled in an evening programme collaborated with five community organisations (two private companies and three non-profit social institutions) across a structured five-phase process: organisational characterisation, needs diagnosis, intermediate assessment, training plan design, and professional presentation. Data sources included a course evaluation questionnaire (n = 25), group self- and peer-assessment forms, student-produced outputs (five needs assessment reports and five training plans), and brief written reflections collected at key moments of the learning process. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were applied.

Results: Students demonstrated competence in translating real organisational needs into structured, contextualised training plans. Overall course satisfaction was high (M=8.75/10; SD=1.15), with consistently positive scores across teaching quality (M=4.47/5), assessment criteria (M=4.67/5), and perceived learning impact (M=4.36/5). Qualitative data revealed themes of reflexivity, knowledge construction, and professional growth. Self- and peer-assessment data also pointed to high perceived engagement and collaborative contribution.

Conclusions: This case study suggests that PBL structured around real community partnerships can support professional learning and university–community engagement in undergraduate education. The findings also highlight the value of curriculum redesign grounded in authentic organisational contexts.

Acknowledgements: This paper was created within the framework of the scientific projects (2022.02524.CEECIND/CP1718/CT0026) and (CIEC | UMinho, UID/00317/2025), both funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology — FCT (Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science).

Background:
In emergency and urgent care, communication errors can jeopardize patient safety. Multilingual educational settings may intensify these risks by complicating teamwork and rapid clinical decision‑making. Kazakhstan’s trilingual higher‑education policy (Kazakh–Russian–English) provides a relevant context to examine how the language of instruction shapes students’ interactions and perceived communication clarity.

Aim:
This study examined how different language tracks influence teamwork, perceived communication barriers, and intergroup integration among emergency medical students.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 248 third- to fifth-year medical students enrolled in English (n=82), Kazakh (n=78), and Russian (n=88) programs at a university emergency care department. A structured questionnaire (10-point Likert items plus one open-ended question) demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α=0.82). Group differences were tested using χ² with Cramer’s V, and relative risks (RRs) were calculated (p<0.05).

Results:
Intergroup interactions differed by language track (χ²=42.90, p<0.001; V=0.416). English‑medium students showed the highest interaction (86.4%) compared with Russian‑medium students (37.5%; RR=2.31, 95% CI: 1.74–3.06). Communication clarity also varied (p<0.001): misunderstandings were more common in English‑ and Kazakh‑medium groups, while Russian‑medium students more often reported none. Barriers differed—language difficulties dominated in English/Kazakh tracks, whereas low motivation was typical for Russian‑medium students. Mixed‑team simulations and project‑based learning were viewed as the most effective integration methods.

Conclusion:
Multilingual emergency medicine education is both a challenge and a resource. Structured intergroup activities—especially mixed‑language simulation training—can improve teamwork, communication accuracy, and intercultural competence, while also reinforcing students’ readiness to work in linguistically diverse clinical settings.

This paper conceptualises the integration of sustainable development principles into foreign language education for specific purposes through the methodological lens of the five core sustainability competencies. Education for sustainable development is approached as a transformative pedagogical paradigm that fosters critical thinking, system awareness, anticipatory competence, ethical responsibility, and collaborative problem-solving, thereby shaping students’ long-term professional identities and decision-making capacities. In this perspective, foreign language education is not limited to linguistic proficiency but becomes a medium for cultivating sustainability-oriented knowledge, values, and skills relevant to contemporary global challenges. This study is grounded in an educational action research framework focusing on foreign language course and curriculum development in higher education. It offers a systematic justification of course structure, intended learning outcomes aligned with sustainability objectives, instructional strategies, and pedagogical interventions designed to promote active and reflective learning. Empirical data are collected from students at Vilnius University and Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), complemented by expert insights from environmental law specialists. The findings suggest that embedding sustainable development into Business English curricula enhances students’ professional preparedness, global awareness, and employability in increasingly sustainability-driven labour markets. Students highlighted the value of integrative, collaborative, experiential, and practice-oriented approaches, while experts identified both strategic benefits and methodological limitations. To sum up, this study underscores the strategic importance of integrating sustainability competencies into foreign language education for specific purposes within higher education.

Introduction:
Engineering curricula often introduce applied design experiences without clearly calibrating their intensity to students’ developmental stage within the program. This study examines how design integration can be scaffolded across curricular levels to progressively support conceptual transfer and system-level reasoning.

Methods:
Two Civil Engineering courses at different stages of the undergraduate program were analyzed. In a second–third year Fluid Mechanics course, students completed a structured design application accounting for 10% of the course grade, focused on applying hydrostatics, buoyancy, and kinematic principles within constrained parameters. In contrast, an upper-level Hydraulic Engineering course incorporated sustained weekly team-based design laboratories representing 30% of the course grade. These laboratories required iterative water distribution network modeling, open-ended decision making, and technical documentation. Instructional structure, assessment weighting, and qualitative student feedback were comparatively examined.

Results:
Findings suggest that limited, highly structured design components are effective in reinforcing targeted theory-to-application transfer at intermediate program levels. In contrast, higher-weighted, sustained design integration in advanced courses appears to promote greater autonomy, collaborative reasoning, and system-level synthesis. Student evaluations in the upper-level course emphasized appreciation for evolving laboratory challenges and authentic professional relevance.

Conclusions:
The results indicate that effective curriculum design may require progressive escalation of design intensity aligned with student maturity. Rather than uniformly increasing project weight across courses, scaffolded integration may better support cognitive development and engagement in higher education engineering programs.

Sustainability education has become a key priority in UK higher education, shaped by policy frameworks such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UNESCO, 2017; United Nations, 2015). Universities are expected to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality through teaching and research, often framing sustainability in terms of skills, competencies, and measurable outcomes (Advance HE, 2021; QAA, 2021). While this signals institutional commitment, I argue that dominant pedagogical approaches frequently rely on universal and Eurocentric assumptions, marginalising Indigenous and place-based knowledge.

Drawing on decolonial theory and Indigenous scholarship, this conceptual research will critique how ESD and SDG discourses shape sustainability pedagogy in the UK. Decolonial scholars highlight how education systems privilege certain knowledge systems while silencing others (de Sousa Santos, 2015; Mignolo, 2011). In sustainability education, global narratives can frame environmental crises as technical problems detached from colonial histories and unequal responsibility (Andreotti, 2014). Indigenous perspectives instead emphasise relational, place-based understandings of sustainability grounded in responsibilities to land and more-than-human relations (Ajaps, 2023; Whyte et al., 2016).

I will identify three tensions: between global policy universality and local epistemic plurality; between institutional inclusion and epistemic justice; and between policy compliance and meaningful educational responsibility. I propose a decolonial reframing centred on relationality, reflexivity, and place-responsiveness. Rather than adding Indigenous content, sustainability education should become a space for critical dialogue about power, knowledge, and contested futures, challenging assumptions about whose knowledge counts and what futures universities help sustain.

Introduction
In today’s higher education landscape, universities face increasing pressure to implement inclusive internationalization strategies that extend beyond physical mobility and support students’ holistic development. While Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) has shown potential to enhance intercultural and digital competencies, there is limited empirical evidence on its integration into structured academic support systems such as Tutorial Action Plans (TAPs). In particular, few studies have examined how embedding COIL within a longitudinal mentoring framework may influence personal development, academic self-efficacy, and career orientation. Addressing this gap, the present study, grounded in experiential learning theory as proposed by Kolb (2014), evaluates whether integrating COIL into a TAP improves personal, academic, and vocational outcomes, as well as student satisfaction.

Methods
A comparative study was conducted with 48 senior undergraduate students. Twenty-seven participated in a COIL initiative involving a Spanish and a Dutch university, while twenty-one followed a traditional tutoring format. Group assignment was based on organizational criteria, reflecting a non-randomized quasi-experimental design. The relatively small sample size is attributable to the progressive implementation of the COIL program over five years, with annual cohorts of 4–6 students. Data were collected using the validated scale developed by Sáiz-Manzanares et al. (2019), assessing satisfaction with the Final Degree Project, academic self-efficacy, and perceived impact and future orientation. Internal consistency indices were examined. Independent samples t-tests were conducted, with assumptions of normality (Shapiro-Wilk test) and homogeneity of variance (Levene test) verified.

Results
Preliminary results indicate that students in the COIL track reported significantly higher levels of personal development, professional skill improvement, and overall satisfaction than those in the traditional track (p < .03 across all dimensions). These findings suggest that structured virtual international collaboration may enhance self-awareness, communication skills, and perceived professional readiness.

Conclusions
Integrating COIL into mentoring frameworks appears to support internationalization at home while strengthening mentoring effectiveness. However, findings should be interpreted cautiously given the small sample and non-randomized design. Future research should employ longitudinal and multi-institutional approaches to assess scalability and long-term impact.

Academic burnout has become a growing concern in health sciences education, where high academic and emotional demands place students at particular risk of emotional exhaustion. Drawing on Social Cognitive Theory and the Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions, this cross-sectional, descriptive–correlational study examined the roles of motivational resources (self-efficacy and self-determination) and achievement emotions (boredom) in predicting emotional exhaustion among 442 undergraduate students from a public university in Northern Chile. Participants completed validated scales assessing all four constructs, and data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical linear regression. Descriptive results indicated moderate to high levels of self-efficacy and self-determination, moderate levels of emotional exhaustion, and moderate to low levels of boredom. Bivariate analyses revealed that self-efficacy and self-determination were positively correlated (r = .517, p < .001), and both showed negative correlations with boredom (r = −.245 and r = −.180, respectively; p < .001). Emotional exhaustion was positively and moderately correlated with boredom (r = .392, p < .001) and negatively correlated with self-efficacy (r = −.192, p < .001), whereas its correlation with self-determination was not statistically significant (r = .032, p > .05). Hierarchical regression identified boredom as the strongest predictor of emotional exhaustion (β = .379, p < .001), with the full model explaining 19.5% of its variance (R² = .195, adjusted R² = .189). Self-efficacy emerged as a significant protective factor (β = −.206, p < .001), whereas self-determination showed a suppressive effect in the full model. These findings highlight the central role of boredom as an emotional pathway to exhaustion in health sciences students and underscore self-efficacy as a key protective resource, with implications for early psychoeducational interventions in regional university contexts.

This study describes an innovative research-integrated teaching model implemented in an MSc course in Food Science and Nutrition, designed to strengthen postgraduate students’ scholarly writing, critical appraisal skills, and publication readiness. Rather than relying solely on traditional lectures and examinations, the course adopted a structured, mentored group-based review paper approach. Students were organized into small research teams and guided to select contemporary, high-impact topics within food science and nutrition. Throughout the semester, continuous monitoring was ensured through scheduled meetings to discuss selected materials, evaluate literature quality, refine research questions, and review successive manuscript drafts. Students completed the full scholarly review process, including systematic database searches, critical synthesis of evidence, identification of research gaps, and preparation of manuscripts aligned with target journal guidelines. Drafts underwent iterative supervisory feedback and were also evaluated by independent faculty members to simulate external peer review and strengthen scientific rigor. In addition, students delivered formal presentations of their topics and key findings at the end of the course, enhancing scientific communication and academic confidence. The model fostered research ownership, teamwork, leadership, and advanced analytical thinking. Importantly, it produced tangible scholarly outcomes: two student-led review papers have already been published in Q1-ranked journals in Food Science and Nutrition, with several additional manuscripts currently under preparation and submission. This experience demonstrates that embedding structured publication training within MSc coursework enhances educational impact while generating meaningful scientific contributions. Future studies should assess the long-term effects of this model on research productivity and career development across different academic settings.

Introduction: Australia is a highly multicultural society, with 51.5% of its population being born overseas or having at least one parent born overseas (according to the Australian Government, Department of Home Affairs, 2024). The cultural and linguistic diversity of the Australian population is an invaluable asset, but it can also pose obstacles on the path to reconciling one’s native cultural background with the norms of the Western world, which is the domain of cultural literacy (Hirsch, 1987). Challenges related to cultural literacy, among other settings, are noticeable among Australian students, including those who pursue doctoral degrees.

Methods: The current paper presents a research project that aimed to investigate the challenges that Western Sydney University (WSU) students encounter during their candidature in the domain of cultural adaptation to the educational setting, which is, to a greater or lesser extent, different to their original cultural norms. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 28 postgraduate research students, both domestic and international, and 12 supervisors from WSU. The collected data was analysed in the NVivo 15 platform by means of thematic analysis.

Results: The results indicate that numerous aspects of postgraduate research students’ candidature can be affected by insufficient adaptation to Western academic norms. Some of them are challenges associated with adjusting to writing conventions applicable in Western academia; challenges within the domain of research skills, such as critical thinking and analysis; as well as challenges in interpersonal relationships within the candidate–supervisor dyad. This shows that cultural literacy is related to and can affect candidates’ academic/non-academic communication skills and research skills.

Conclusions: Based on the results, this paper offers recommendations for universities on how to improve their postgraduate research students’ cultural literacy through systematic and continuous institutional support.

Differential equation courses in engineering are often perceived as abstract and of limited practical relevance. This study examined the impact of integrating Problem-Based Learning (PBL) into course lectures, compared with traditional frontal instruction, while maintaining an identical syllabus, tutorials, and assessment structure.

The study included 59 students enrolled in electronics, chemistry, and polymer engineering programs (31 control; 28 PBL). Academic performance indicators were collected (mean assignment grades, midterm, and final exam grades), along with persistence measures (attendance and assignment submission rates) and motivation questionnaire data (N = 49). Group differences, correlations, and linear regression predicting the final course grade were analyzed.

Findings indicate a consistent pattern favoring the PBL group across achievement measures. A statistically significant difference was found in mean assignment grades and submission rates, and a consistent positive trend was observed in exam grades and overall course grade, although statistical significance was not reached. In both groups, attendance was positively associated with achievement; however, this association was stronger under traditional instruction, suggesting reduced reliance on frontal attendance in the PBL environment. Regression analysis identified mean assignment grades as the primary predictor of the final course grade.

Statistically significant differences favoring PBL were found across all motivation dimensions, including self-efficacy, interest and enjoyment, value and relevance, and persistence, indicating a broad and consistent impact on engagement, perceived value, and learner responsibility.

These findings emphasize that integrating PBL into engineering mathematics primarily affects learning processes and motivation, sharpening the distinction between learning as a process and achievement as a summative outcome. The study contributes to mathematics instruction in higher education by proposing a framework that distinguishes formal achievement from learning processes and engagement as complementary components of academic success, and by reinforcing the need to reconsider success metrics so that they reflect not only examination outcomes but also depth of learning and learner responsibility.