Friday 12-05-2017 - 11:03

One of the central ideals of the Students’ Union is a commitment to sustainability and campaigning on issues related to the environment, climate change and sustainability. We are committed to ensuring that sustainability is one of our key considerations when it comes to our work. This takes the form of lobbying and working with the University on projects, campaigns and events to raise awareness of sustainability issues, promoting volunteering opportunities offered by student led societies as well as local and national organisations on environmental causes and ensuring that as much of our work is guided by principles of sustainability as possible.

 

One of the key areas that we work on, and need course reps and students to be involved with is in making sure the principles of sustainability are part of what students learn. This is known as ‘embedding sustainability into the curriculum’. Whilst there are obvious areas sustainability can be made more of a part of what is taught by universities, such as courses like engineering, architecture, or other areas, it might not seem so easy with things like history, art or teaching. However, sustainability can be and should be a part of everything that universities teach.

 

Sustainable Development is about more than climate change or recycling. It is about understanding our relationship with the wider world, both other human communities and all life on the planet. Understanding the wider world as a diverse collection of ecosystems rather than as a resource store, and about the need to understand the role of rights and responsibilities of ourselves and others, and how we need to work together. These are things that can be taught in the same way that developing critical thinking skills is taught or engaging with academic literature. Embedding sustainability in the curriculum doesn’t necessarily mean an extra module on something to do with green energy, but about adjusting what is already taught.

 

The reason it is important for students to get involved is that you are the future leaders. You will lead communities, companies and maybe even countries. Only 3% of the world’s population go to university, but they make up 80% of the worlds leadership[i].

 

How can you get involved? Well, as course reps you can go to your staff-student committees, annual programme reviews and in module feedback forms and ask the staff on whether there any plans to embed sustainability into what is taught more. The University already has a policy on this, and expects academic staff to show how they are embedding it in their teaching, but you as students can have a strong voice in directing this.

 

One of the most comprehensive resources is the Future Fit Framework[ii] by the Higher Education Academy (a UK wide body that promotes teaching excellence). It includes a comprehensive explanation of the idea of embedding sustainability in learning, and outlines how universities and colleges can work towards it.

 

One of the things it refers to is the idea that there are seven things every graduate should leave university knowing.

 

1. An in-depth knowledge of their favourite subject
2. How to apply knowledge, to make sense of the world
3. What makes a good life
4. How other people think, how to reflect on alternative view
5. How change happens and how to respond to it
6. The dynamics of power and influence – how can we drive the change we want to see?
7. The principles of interdependence – how do we impact and are impacted by others at local, national and global levels.

 

These are seven key areas that essential in understanding the principles of sustainability, and these are key questions that you can ask of yourself and see how much they apply to your time at University. Some of these are things are going to be personal to you and your development, some of them are things best developed as part of being in a club, society or volunteering project. But a lot of it can be and should be part of what and how you are taught. The Framework also has case studies of how it can work at subject level. History for example can include looking at the Industrial Revolution not just from a socio-political viewpoint, but also its impact on climate change. Anthropology could explore how the tribal nature of humanity in our earliest times has led to challenges to working together globally.

 

What, you might be asking, can you actually do now? Well, there are a number of examples. Students at the University of Manchester founded the Post-Crash Economics Society in 2012. They felt that their classes weren’t reflected in the economic reality they were seeing around them, and wanted the university to do more teaching related to the global financial crisis that they had grown up in and were living through. They continue to pressure the University on these issues, and hold large meetings and events for everyone to discuss these issues further and teach themselves more about alternative approaches.

 

There is also the Dissertations for Good project[iii] that encourages and enables students and organisations to collaborate on projects. Organisations and students can post listings of their projects and their areas of interests and each can contact the other. This can be a massive help to students looking for either general ideas of what to do their dissertation on or for those who specifically would like their work to have a measureable impact. The projects posted by organisations cover a wide range of areas from employment, ecology, economics, sociology, disabilities, health and more.

 

Action List:

1. Talk with other students about what aspects of sustainability could be included in their modules, or alongside your studies like the students at Manchester.
2. Raise these ideas at staff student committee meetings
3. Talk to the SU officers on your campus – we have part-time Green officers on each campus as well – what campaigns would you like to work with us on?
4. Register on Dissertations for Good

 

Any action can be a positive. Whether you just ask questions of your lecturers or actually focus your dissertations on a particular project. You can make a measureable, positive change to not just your education, but to the world.

 

There’s a lot more materials and subject-specific tools that the Students’ Union can direct you to, and we’ll provide you with any help or guidance that you need if you’re interested in working on m. If you want to know more about this, please get in touch with Jeremy.harvey@uwtsd.ac.uk