Abstract:

The emerging research has a strong focus on sustainability competencies which are crucial for university students in order to become informed and responsible global citizens who are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes in dealing with complex real-world unsustainable issues. Numerous studies are focusing on the contextualization of key competences for sustainability, though not much attention has been paid to global competence. There are numerous tools that have been developed for the evaluation of global competence in the school and university setting. Understating the dynamics and interconnectedness of complex socio-economic frameworks for the development of global competence is a prerequisite for educating globally-minded citizens who are equipped with the necessary tools for 'living together in the world of diversity. Global competence is closely related to global citizenship and other competencies.

The aim of this study is to conceptualize a global competence as essential for the students to reorient in a global world by embracing diversity as a value and their ability “to live together.” The methodology of this study is focus group interviews and the interviews with the individual students who have gained international experience via diverse educational channels carried out with the aim to explore how their experience was broadened or developed their global competence. The study explores other preconditions for developing students’ global competence as a part of undertaking study courses or participating in other in campus international activities. Acquisition of global competence is essentially important because it is challenging students to explore a variety of perspectives, to face the problems of the 21st century, and to learn how to work with people with different backgrounds and meaning perspectives. The competence makes students to understand the world beyond the immediate environment, to recognize different perspectives and communicate effectively to different audiences and to take actions for the well-being of the Earth. As it was discovered, the globally competent student is able to comprehend local and global cultural diversity, to recognize similarities and differences that exist among people by exploring implicit an explicit forms of power, inequality, and privilege as well as engage in a meaningful dialogue with the different others.

Keywords:

Global competence, sustainable development goals, sustainability competencies, global consciousness, globally-minded citizens.