In higher education there has been an increasing shift towards outcome-based education coming from the need for international comparability of qualifications (cf. Schaeper, 2009). The outcome-based competence approach equips graduates with a holistic education that is backward-designed from looking to people who are successful in the graduates’ field. A growing international discipline is the area of sustainability science and developing sustainability competence in graduates. This competence can be seen as “complexes of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable successful task performance and problem solving with respect to real-world sustainability problems, challenges, and opportunities” (Wiek et al., 2011: 204). While this is still quite a new field, initial research has broken down sustainability competence into six sub-competencies, including anticipatory competence (Wiek et al., 2016). This competence includes the ability to successfully navigate and effectively use various concepts of the future, the disposition to understand that one’s future is malleable and yet be able to juggle oft-times depressing concepts. Against this background, this paper asks how higher education can foster anticipatory competence and how the development of this competence can be assessed. For the past two years, this research has piloted an action research case study and expert interviews to help operationalise anticipatory competence and identify key aspects of anticipatory competence that can be assessed (Gardiner / Rieckmann 2015). Based on the results of this research, further needs for research in assessing competencies in higher education for development will be identified.

Gardiner S. / Rieckmann M. (2015): Pedagogies of Preparedness: Use of Reflective Journals in the Operationalisation and Development of Anticipatory Competence. Sustainability 7: 10554-10575 // Schaeper, H. (2009): Development of competencies and teaching–learning arrangements in higher education: findings from Germany. Studies in Higher Education 34 (6): 677-697 // Wiek, A. / Withycombe, L. / Redman, C. (2011): Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development. Sustainability Science 6 (2): 203-218 // Wiek, A./Bernstein, M. J./Foley, R. W./Cohen, M./Forrest, N./Kuzdas, C./Kay, B./Withycombe Keeler, L. (2016): Operationalising competencies in higher education for sustainable development, in: Barth, M./Michelsen, G./Thomas, I./Rieckmann, M. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development, London, pp. 241-260