ESD Development Day27 April 2010

ESD and the Academy

Prof Stephen Sterling

Senior Advisor, ESD

Higher Education Academy

ESD Project

Outline

• Context and challenge• Background to HEA ESD Project• Current programme• Issues

The call to respond

To meet the challenge of climate change, ‘the world needs minds capable of creating new possibilities’.

‘it is crucial that the HE sector contributes strongly to sustainable development’

HE provides a ‘vital platform’ for the transition to a low carbon economy, in order to ‘safeguard a secure future’

- Lord Stern, Foreword to HEFCE’s current strategic statement and action plan Sustainable Development in Higher Education (2009)

HEFCE’S sustainable development ambition

‘Our vision is that within the next ten

years, the higher education sector

will be recognised as a major

contributor to society’s efforts to

achieve sustainability – through the skills

and knowledge that its graduates learn...,

its research and exchange of knowledge...,

community and public policy engagement,

and through its own strategies and operations.’

- Sustainable Development in Higher Education

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2009/09

Varying views....

‘Universities already make a significant contribution to the UK’s sustainable development strategy and have played an important role in researching the challenges, in developing new approaches to those challenges and also in improving organisational operations’.

- A university leaders’ statement of intent on sustainable development , UUK, 2010

‘It is a huge challenge to get VCs to see this as core business’

- Patricia Broadfoot, Chair of UUK SD Task Group

• ‘ESD is about the learning needed to maintain and improve our quality of life and the quality of life of generations to come’.

• ‘ESD enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.’

– Sustainable Development Education Panel Report, 1998

A definition….

ESD has implications for....

• Curriculum• Hidden curriculum and

learning environments• Most (all) disciplines• Interdisciplinarity• Pedagogy• Research-teaching

linkages

• Student engagement• Campus operation

and management• Community links• Institutional

governance• Corporate policy and

plans

The sustainable university? 15 criteria at U of Plymouth

• Sustainability vision – policy statement

• Whole institution strategy and action plan

• Senior management member with known responsibility for implementation

• Senior executive committee

• Regular sustainability and environmental auditing

• Sustainability applied to all aspects of campus operation

• Ethical investment policy

• Excellent internal communication

• Excellent external communication of sustainability message

• Holistic perception and management of 4 Cs

• Embedding sustainability in formal and informal learning of students

• Sustainability principles and pedagogy in L&T policy

• University sustainability research centre and research strategy

• Culture of organisational learning and improvement

• Concern for wellbeing of whole community as well as achievement

Key dates in evolution of ESD in HE in England• 1993 Environmental responsibility Toyne Report

• 1996 Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) launched

• 2000 Higher Education Partnerships for Sustainability (HEPs)

• 2004 Higher Education Academy formed

• 2005 HEA ESD Project launched. Research undertaken

• 2005 Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) launches SD policy and strategy

• 2005 Securing the Future - delivering UK sustainability strategy (UK government’s SD policy document)

• 2005 Two ESD Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning funded (Plymouth and Kingston)

• 2008 HEFCE Strategic Review of Sustainable Development in HE

• 2008 DIUS SD Action Plan

• 2009 HEFCE Sustainable Development Action Plan

• 2009 HEA adopts ESD as a key priority area

• 2010 HEFCE Carbon Reduction Strategy

Carbon and HE

• Climate Change Act 2008 requires greenhouse emissions in UK to be cut to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050

• Carbon reduction strategy developed by HEFCE is setting sector wide targets: -

recommending a commitment to reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and by at least 34 per cent by 2020, against a 1990 baseline

• Nearly all HEIs have an environmental policy

• Some 85 HEIs have target driven carbon management plan

• Also some 85 have full time staff working on sustainability

Future Leaders Survey 07/08

25 000 applicants to universities and colleges surveyed

‘The survey paints a picture of a generation that is intensely aware of the big challenges facing the planet and eager to see broader social and political change…..’

- Forum for the Future/ UCAS 2008

A growing movement...

• UN Decade for ESD (2005-15)• DIUS Sustainable Development Action Plan• HEFCE’s Strategic Review of SD in HE and SD Action Plan (‘09)• HEFCE’s Carbon Reduction Target and Strategy for HE (‘10)• HEFCW Corporate Strategy and Plan • HE Academy ESD Project - recognised as a priority • Sustainability CETLs and a growing number of leader HEIs• People and Planet ‘Green League’• Future Leaders Survey• Green Gown Awards• Rise of Regional Centres of Expertise• Universities UK SD Group and Statement of Intent• Academy/SFC review of sustainability in the Scottish HEI sector• ESDGC curriculum audit of HEIs in Wales

HE response: what’s the position nationally?

• Relatively small but growing number of courses focused on SD

• Education for sustainable development (ESD) quite strong in a few disciplines

• Most QAA Benchmarks are silent• ESD is absent from most L&T strategies• Most UK graduates are not “sustainability literate”• But ……recent surge of interest and activity corresponding

with rising political/public debate – at all levels of HE

Drivers

• Rising public interest and concern• Shifting views of employers• Profession’s requirements (eg Engineering Council, RICS and Sector Skills Councils)• Student demand• CSR + SD links• Financial savings• Marketing and recruitment advantage• Funding council expectations• Felt obligation to our students as next generation • Enhanced learning and teaching

Barriers

Cited factors

• Limited institutional commitment

• Crowded curriculum• Perceived irrelevance• Limited staff awareness

and/or expertise• Limited commitment from

external stakeholders• Perceived as separate

and/or too demanding

Types of barriers

• Paradigmatic/psychological

• Policy/purpose related

• Structural (governance, compartmentalisation etc)

• Resource/information deficiency

Sustainable Development in HE,

HE Academy 2005 (Dawe report)

Tensions: ESD =add-on or transformation?

• Technical issue relating mainly to estates and resource use

• Principally an environmental issue

• Requires add-on, or reformative approach

• Involves a few disciplines only

• Is an additional agenda, easily accommodated

• Has clear goals, measurable

• Broad relevance to all aspects of HE operation and provision

• Also encompasses social relations, justice, ethics, economic viability etc

• Requires holistic and transformative approach

• Interdisciplinarity across curriculum

• Is an overarching agenda and challenges existing policy and practice and involves organisational change

• Emerging and contested area

Some challenges for the ‘sustainable university’, how to...

• bring together and reconcile agendas coherently: eg.employment, internationalisation, enterprise and sustainability

• spearhead sustainable development regionally with stakeholders, and support healthy and sustainable economies and communities

• model sustainability on campus, procurement, food and resource use etc

• anticipate social, economic and ecological change, particularly related to climate change

• ensure ‘sustainability literacy’ of staff and students

• get all this to be a central part of the HEI’s culture

How Academy can support ESD in the sector

– providing key resources and advice to senior managers in the development of ESD Learning and Teaching policies, and providing opportunities for internal networking and change management

– making a significant contribution to the evidence base for the development of ESD pedagogy, providing a greater understanding of the nature of ESD and how it can be successfully embedded

 

– impacting at disciplinary level through the work of SCs, increasing capacity through publications, funding and events resulting in the identification, development and enhancement of ESD in programmes, courses and modules

Intended outcomes of Academy’s ESD work

Academy regarded as...

•  as a key source of information and expertise for embedding ESD into curricula at individual, departmental, discipline and institutional levels; and at regional and UK levels

• an important source and facilitator of evidence-based research into ESD in the UK

• an important partner in ESD within the sector, in terms of both leadership and facilitation, through its activities and representation on key bodies

• a key player in national ESD policy development through the above

HE Academy Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project

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

The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project

• Began early 2005 with support of Forum for the Future, as special theme within Academy’s programme

• First stage: audit of subject communities carried out by 18 of the 24 Subject Centres

• Culminated in the “Dawe Report”, available from website: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd

‘Sustainability literacy’: the ability..

- to appreciate importance of environmental, social, and political

contexts

- to solve real-life problems in a non-reductionist manner

- to think creatively and holistically and make critical judgements

- to develop high-level of self reflection, personal and professional

- to identify, understand, evaluate and adopt values conducive to sustainability

- to bridge the gap between theory and practice

- to participate creatively in inter-discipinary teams

- to initiate and manage change

AND, have a broad and balance foundation knowledge of SD

• SD in HE: Current practice and future developments, Higher Education Academy 2005

HE Academy ESD (Project)

Aims1 ‘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’.

Programme Areas

1 Research and development

2 Capacity building

3 Coordination and dissemination

Plan of Work 2009-10: Research and development

• Publish Earthscan book on contribution of disciplines to ESD (in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Futures)

• Produce a Learning and Teaching Framework for ESD• Produce associated PowerPoint/ video presentations• Fund five small curriculum development grants around interdisciplinarity• Publish the Welsh ESDGC audit baseline report on website• Produce a template for base-lining ESDGC in an institution• Coordinate the production of an issue of Exchange• Student engagement: attitudes to SD research• Evaluation of mini projects• Student engagement launch event• Two Subject Centre interdisciplinary research grants

Stimulating new thinking

SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION

Perspectives and practice

across higher education

Plan of Work 2009-10: Capacity building• Internal briefing on ESD for Academy and briefing event(s)• Two single institutional strategy and change events in Scotland

(QMU and Edinburgh)• Staff development workshops for, and consultancy to, HEIs by

request, and subject to availability of staff• Assistance to SCs by request• Three workshops for practitioners based on needs identified by

sector-wide survey in 2008 (Scotland); involving other stakeholders e.g. SFC, Universities Scotland, EAUC, Scotland’s Colleges.

• One Sustainability in Higher Education Developers (SHED ) meeting for key people

• Cooperate with HEFCE or other key players re events• Workshop at HE Academy conference in 2010• Additional support for HEIs

Education for Sustainable Development: Strategic Consultations among English HEIs 

Recommendation 1: Capacity-building for Inter-disciplinary ESD

build and support institutional and individual confidence to ensure that the central place of sustainable development is fostered within both the academic map and the student consciousness.

Recommendation 2: Supporting Organisational Change

sharing good practice, stimulating strategic thought and producing valuable guidelines

Recommendation 3: Information-gathering for Sustainability Literacy

research to provide detailed, current information on the skills needs of employers and the demands of the graduate employment market in relation to ‘sustainability literacy’

Dr Colin Brooks & Dr Alex Ryan , Higher Education Academy ESD ProjectSept 2008

Plan of Work 2009-10: Coordination and dissemination

• Representation on, cooperation with and assistance to key bodies (HEFCE SD Review Steering Group, links to HEFCW and SFC, Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges, UNESCO UK)

• Coordination of Sustainability in Higher Education Developers (SHED ) network• Maintenance of Academy sustainability pages• Maintenance of regional network databases• Production of bi-monthly newsletter and weekly digest• Participate in Green Gowns judging• Co-ordinate and service three all-Wales meetings of the ESDGC HE Network

Wales Group (Wales)• Make links beyond the ESD community to other agendas, e.g., effective

learning, assessment, quality teaching, particularly those also at the top of the Academy’s list

• Develop list of ESD speakers and/or champions via SHED

Sustainability in Higher Education Developers (SHED) Networks

‘SHED-Share’Run by Academy ESD in collaboration with the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC)

SHED-Share: information, announcements, queries, with the potential to develop discussions, joint proposals etc

Communication

• Bi-monthly e-newsletter • Weekly e-bulletin• Academy ESD website• Sustainability in HE Developers network

(SHED)

The Academy ESD Website http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd

• Our strategy• Publications• Latest news on ESD in the HE sector• Information on all of our projects• Regional networking lists for the South West, Scotland and

Wales• ESD events, past (including presentations) and future• Links to disciplinary-specific ESD resources via Subject Centres• Bi-monthly e-Newsletter (sign up on the site)• Links to relevant policy documents/web pages and partners

Plan of Work 2009-10 (highlights)

• Student engagement research• Student engagement event• Produce a Learning and Teaching Framework for ESD• Two single institutional strategy and change events in Scotland• Coordination of Sustainability in Higher Education Developers

(SHED ) network (with EAUC)• Fund five small curriculum development grants around

interdisciplinarity• Subject Centre interdisciplinary research grants

Academy ESD management

• David Sadler has overall responsibility

• Planning Group meetings – open to all Subject Centre representatives

• Advisory Group (chaired by Prof Steve Martin. Has met twice to date)

HEA ESD Staff (all part time)

‘Field’ team• Dr Simon Smith, PRS, Project Manager• Project Co-ordinator: Heather Luna• Prof Stephen Sterling, U of Plymouth, Senior Advisor

Academy York team• Laila Burton (York Project Co-ordinator)• Jonathan Payens (York Project Officer)

and• Alastair Robertson (Head of Policy and Partnerships,

Scotland)

Key sites

• Higher Education Academy ESD Project http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/esd

• HEFCE’s online resource for sustainable development in HE http://www.hefce.ac.uk/susdevresources/

• Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) http://www.eauc.org.uk

• Student Force for Sustainability www.studentforce.org.uk/ 

• Centre for Sustainable Futures (CSF) at UP www.csf.plymouth.ac.uk

Some issues

• Reconciling limited capacity and budgets with rising expectations

• Need for internal capacity building

• Relationship between ESD Project as main focus - and wider Academy ESD involvement including SCs and York