Nicholas Mwaura Kinyanjui works as a doctoral fellow at UGent’s Centre for Sustainable Development and at Riara University (Kenya) on the project entitled ‘Implementing Sustainability Education in Higher Education: Revisiting the scholarly debate, policymaking, and practices from a Kenyan perspective – SHEK’ with Prof. Katrien Van Poeck. The SHEK project revisits the debate about competencies and employability in education for sustainable development (ESD) from a sub-Saharan African perspective. It conducts a comparative policy analysis of ESD and sustainable higher education policies in Belgium and Kenya, a comparative analysis of ESD implementation in a Belgian and Kenyan university, and action research on curriculum redesign in a Kenyan university.

Nicholas obtained a Master of Education in Administration and Planning in 2007 with a Master’s thesis entitled: ‘An Investigation into Awareness about Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): A Study of the Faculty of Education at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa’. After graduating, he has over 15 years leadership experience in the University Sector in Kenya, having served as the Alumni Officer and Head of the Education Department at the Catholic University (2008-2017) and at Riara University (since 2017) as the Dean of Students/Director of Quality Assurance/Lead Employability, Enterprise and Sustainability. He worked as a consultant with Giving Voice to Values (GVV) Africa as a Facilitator/Trainer of the Trainer and a Systems Career Change Mentor Pool Member with Ashesi University Education Collaborative, Ghana; the Technical Lead/Principal Investigator SSA at Riara University British Council Funded Project on Accelerating Entrepreneurship Support for Universities in Kenya and another Project with Ashesi Education Collaborative to Enhance Career and Graduate Employability.