UMA is the only university in Mexico that specialises in sustainability. It arose ten years ago out of the concern of a group of young Mexicans who recognised the huge importance of creating a learning space to address socio-environmental challenges in Latin America. Since then, hundreds of specialists, educators, change agents, and entrepreneurs have joined in the development of an educational model that looks at how we can re-design our system. We offer master’s degrees, workshops, diploma courses and consulting services focused on sustainability and socio-environmental regeneration.
Paradigmatic
Yes, their mission is “to catalyse a regenerative, sustainable and ethical future, accompanying change agents who are capable of promoting initiatives to transform socio-environmental systems.” (https://umamexico.com/que-es-la-uma/). They refer to “systemic transformation” in their educational model.
Integrated
Their educational model is based on an inner-led change understanding: “Upon entering a master’s program at UMA, students recognize the importance of developing themselves as change agents, entering into a process of transformation and personal enrichment that allows them to develop initiatives and projects that seek to change the current practices of their discipline towards sustainable pathways. At UMA we believe that change starts with oneself.”
Personal development as change agents includes: active listening, systems thinking, critical thinking, ethical reflection, active investigation, conversational leadership, personal transformation.
They also outline 5 dimensions of regeneration that postgraduate projects are encouraged to incorporate, which integrate inner, interpersonal, and systemic levels: “a). Personal regeneration: processes that nurture and recreate personal enthusiasm. b). Relational regeneration: processes that deepen and reinvent relationships among participants. c). Environmental regeneration: processes that create conditions for ecosystems to self-regenerate. d). Learning regeneration: processes that reflect to identify learning that renew our understanding of the world. e). Project regeneration: processes that nurture the project so that it can sustain and renew itself.”
Pragmatic
They support students to “learn by doing” and develop their own projects and initiatives. They combine personal transformation and development of inner skills with practical professional skills in the students’ chosen discipline, e.g. agroecology, public policy, architecture etc.
Also evident in the “active investigation” aspect of their pedagogy: investigating through action, and learning by taking action in the system and observing the results: through cycles of designing, doing, evaluation, adjusting.