The Higher Education Academy’s Education for Sustainable Development Project Dr Stephen Sterling Senior Advisor Higher Education Academy ESD Project ‘Higher Education and SustainableDevelopment in Scotland’

The Higher Education Academy Our mission is to help institutions, discipline groups and all staff to provide the best possible learning experience for their students We provide discipline-based support through our Subject Network of 24 Subject Centres. These are a mix of single-site and consortium-based centres located within relevant subject departments and hosted by higher education institutions.

Goal of UN DESD ‘to integrate the values inherent in sustainable development into all aspects of learning….’ This involves learning ‘the values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and for positive societal transformation’.

Is this the HE response?

Students as ‘active, engaged, and effective citizens’ People who are: Comfortable dealing with ambiguity Willing to take a risk to make a difference More interested in solving problems than taking credit Both effective advocates and listeners Eager to imagine and implement daring multifacted solutions – together -Lawrence Bacow, President of Tufts University, 2007 in Rappaport and Creighton, Degrees that matter, MIT Press.

The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project Initiated in early 2005 with the support of Forum for the Future First stage: audit of subject communities carried out by 18 of the 24 Subject Centres Culminated in the “Dawe Report”, available from our website:

Our Strategy Purpose: ‘to help institutions and subject communities develop curricula and pedagogy that will give students the skills and knowledge to live and work sustainably.’

Our Strategy, continued Programme Areas: 1 Research and development 2 Capacity building 3 Coordination and dissemination

Our Strategy, continued Aims: 1 ‘To research and support the development of ESD in the HE sector, particularly within subject communities’. 2 ‘To build capacity amongst individuals, subject communities and institutions to embed ESD in curricula and pedagogy’. 3 ‘To assist the coordination and dissemination of policy, research and practice relating to ESD in institutions, the HEA and the wider field’.

Our Current Work Research into the UK Policy Context –Forum for the Future –England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales –Available July Action Research on Labour Market Evidence for Sustainable Careers Advice –StudentForce for Sustainability –Surveyed students, employers, careers advisors –Available July

Our Current Work, continued… Solo HEI Events –Alex Ryan and Colin Brooks –University of East Anglia –University of Gloucestershire soon –Report on our website Three-Day Interdisciplinary Seminar Series –Alex Ryan and Colin Brooks –3 universities, 15 disciplines represented –Report on our website

Our Current Work, continued… Regional ESD Networking Events –East Midlands –South West on 28th March in Bristol –Scotland on 13th June in Dundee –Reports on our website Community Projects –Heather Witham –Thornbury: Cardiff, UWE, Gloucestershire, Leeds – writing up –U of Gloucestershire projects: Arran Stibbe –More information available on the web

Our Current Work, continued… Small Grant Funding –12 projects from 8 HEIs and/or Subject Centres –13 disciplines –Results available in July –Listing of projects on our website –3 new projects funded in Scotland Conference –10-11 July 2007 ‘Sustainability and the Curriculum’ –Ecoversity: Bradford University –Special issue of Environmental Education Research –More information on our website

Scottish Small Grants projects Sustainability in Practice – St Andrews Developing e-learning materials for sustainable construction management – Dundee “Welcome to the Sahel”: an interdisciplinary resource-bank of sustainable development - Stirling

Working with other leading HEIs developing aPlymouth whole-university approach to SD involving all students and staff and all areas of the Institutions’ work. They may provide models for other universities to follow Kingston Bradford’s Ecoversity

Our Current Work, continued… Joined Up Thinking –Key actors meetings: Kingston, Gloucestershire, Plymouth, Bournemouth, Leadership Foundation, EAUC, Forum for the Future, others –Joint strategies on communicating to the sector –Next meeting in July Resource Development –Our website –Our pages on EAUC new website –Subject Centres websites

Our Current Work, continued… Subject Centre Activity –Projects –Workshops –Joint events –Publications Generic Module, and Learning and Teaching Framework; Sustainability policy –Stephen Sterling (joint post with Centre for Sustainable Futures - Plymouth)

Sixteen Subject Centres are currently actively working on ESD issues. Examples of past and recent work by Centres include:  Bioscience: survey of subject community on ESD issues, and ethics/sustainability curriculum audit tool  Engineering: working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the development of ESD resources  Education: developing a subject-specific pedagogical strategy for ESD  Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences: survey of employability skills for environmental scientists, and Skills for Sustainable Futures event  Law: Project entitled “Developing global citizens through legal education”  Materials: ESD-themed annual conference Philosophy and Religious Studies: workshop on religion and the environment

Possible new directions include…. Support materials on developing ESD in disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts Discipline specific indicative modules Student conference Guideline materials on HEI sustainability policy Guidelines on whole institutional responses Further solo HEI events More regional and networking events

Any Questions? Our website: Our Project Co-ordinator: Heather Witham