The Empathy Compass for addressing Societal Challenges in Education.

Higher education, as a catalyst for social progress and talent development, holds a unique position to foster mutual learning across sectors, disciplines, life-spheres and communities. By nurturing critical thinking and creativity, education can empower students to drive and take societal and environmental responsibility. Empathic co-design emerges as a crucial approach for navigating complexity and establishing change. Exposure to diverse perspectives encourages individuals, particularly students, to expand their empathy by challenging their preconceptions, fostering understanding, and promoting a deeper sense of interconnectedness with others. Recognizing the significance of empathy in educational co-design contexts and beyond, this paper introduces the Empathy Compass. Through two case studies on the societal impact of Ecstasy production and use, we demonstrate the Compass's utility in tracking students’ empathic awareness. The practice-oriented, three-dimensional tool highlights specific mindsets, activities and methodologies within each quadrant, its intersections and the ‘we-space’. The Empathy Compass emerges as a valuable tool for higher education, supporting the stimulation, facilitation and assessment of empathic awareness in multi-stakeholder collaboration