INTRODUCTION: The challenge to curricula to encourage socially sustainable ways of living – environmentally, economically and socially – is a global phenomenon. An example is the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations that aim to create a global partnership for development to address poverty, illness, health, education and environmental sustainability (United Nations 2011). The Earth Charter Initiative (n.d.) aims of addressing principles for constructing a just, sustainable and peaceful global society are similar. In South Africa, the Department of Education, in the Education White Paper of 1997 (RSA DoE 1997), as well as in the Report of the Ministerial Committee on Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education Institutions (RSA DoE 2008), aims at addressing the importance of social change and integration. The Stellenbosch University HOPE Project (Stellenbosch University 2010), an initiative of the rector of this university, comprises concrete ways of addressing critical social issues on campus, and also in the broader South African society.