Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Report Name Subtitle

How to change your

curriculum:

Sustainability Bristol SU

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………….. 3

What can you do?…………………………………………………. 5

Curriculum Audit……………………………………………... 6

Student Survey…………………………………………………11

Presenting Your Findings…………………………………….12

Lobby Time!.........................................................................13

Post Cash Economic Society Case study ……………………… 14

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Introducing Education for Sustainable Development

The University uses the UNESCO defines of Education for Sustainable

Development (ESD).

As can be seen from the UNESCO definition, it is not just about the

environment but also social and economic issues and not just about what we

learn but also how. See the diagram on the next page to get more of an

idea of what ESD means. If you want to learn more get in touch with the SU’s

Sustainability team.

Useful links:

ESD Wiki (including definition docs)

UNESCO ESD page

ESD allows every human being to acquire the knowledge,

skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a

sustainable future………. (it) means including key

sustainable development issues into teaching and

learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk

reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable

consumption. It also requires participatory teaching and

learning methods that motivate and empower learners to

change their behaviour and take action for sustainable

development. Education for Sustainable Development

consequently promotes competencies like critical thinking,

imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a

collaborative way.

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

What can you do?

Get together with everyone involved in planning your event. If it’s a big event

why not ask other members if they would like to help or volunteer and get

them involved? At this stage you can go crazy and think up all the elements

you dream of having in your event. When you get to the research stage you

will get a better idea of what is possible within your budget and timeframe.

Get your creative minds on and use the next worksheet to help guide your

discussions.

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

What can you do?

Do you think that your curriculum is not equipping you with the right

knowledge and skills to prepare you for the future? You may think that you

can’t change your curriculum but you can! You need information and

evidence to be able to lobby the University. Do you know how much ESD

related content, teaching and learning your course covers? If not, why not

undertake a review? Do your fellow students think that your curriculum is

equipping you with the education you need? Undertake a survey to find out.

Over the next few pages we guide you through how to conduct a review

and survey and provide you with some information for next steps.

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Curriculum Audit

How do I find the information about my course?

Firstly you need to gather info about the course. There are two ways to do

this:

1. You can contact the ESD team and they can provide the data for you.

2. Find and format the information yourself

Instructions for collecting course information

1. Go to the Unit and Programme Catalogue and click on Programme

Catalogue 2015/16.

2. Choose the Faculty for your course

3. Choose your school. This will then provide you with a list of all the

undergraduate courses.

4. You can use the tabs at the top to see postgraduate taught and

research courses.

5. Click on the course you wish to explore. This will bring up a list of first

year units on that course. Use the tabs at the top to see other years.

6. Copy and paste this information in to excel (please note that this will

require unmerging cells and reformatting. Then copy and paste this

information in to the spreadsheet:

You are then ready to conduct your audit!

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Step 1

Step 2

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Step 3

Step 4

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Step 5

Step 6

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

How do I conduct an audit?

Click on the first unit code. This will take you to the webpage with the course

description.

Read through the description and identify any sustainability related content.

If you identify any, put a Y in the “Is ESD included in this unit?” box.

If you can identify what type of ESD it is write it in “Type of ESD: select from –

Social/Cultural, Political, Economic, Environmental” box.

If you can identify any other information fill it in the relevant box.

If you have taken the unit, you can also fill in as many of the boxes as you

can.

Analysing the results

You can use the chart facilities to analyse your results and create a report.

Does your course lack sustainability content? Does it focus on one type of

sustainability? Where do you see the opportunity to include sustainability?

Instead of just identifying the negatives of your course, try to

present your findings in a solution focussed way. Highlight the

opportunities to improve things!

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Student Survey

To make your argument for curriculum change stronger, it is good to have

your peers on side! A survey is a great way of finding out what your fellow

students think.

How do I conduct a survey?

You can set up your own survey monkey for free but this limits you to 10

questions and 100 responses. Bristol SU has an account allowing you to ask

more questions and get more responses. The Sustainability team can help

you set this up.

Some ideas for questions are below. There may be some that are specific to

your course. For example, Engineers Without Borders wanted to demonstrate

demand for their sustainability challenge to be incorporated into the

curriculum and so asked some very specific questions around this.

You may want to provide an incentive to increase the response rate. Talk to

the Sustainability team to see if they can help.

Is sustainability important to you?

Should sustainability be covered in a stand-alone model, embedded in

your course or not covered at all?

Do you see sustainability related issues or skills being taught on your

course?

Would you like the opportunity to do more real world projects in your

course?

Are you involved in any activities that promote sustainability?

Analysing the results

Results and charts can be downloaded directly from Survey monkey. Do

your fellow students want to see more sustainability content and skills

included in their course? Where do they see opportunities to include more

sustainability? You can write a short report outlining your findings. Get in

touch with the Sustainability Team if you want some help.

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Presenting your findings

Putting together a report of your findings will be dependent on the

research you have done, whether that be a curriculum audit, survey or your

own research. However the following template is an example of what this

might look like.

A title page

A contents page

Foreword: You could start with a statement from yourself or collectively

from the students.

Executive Summary: This is a summary of your findings. This should be

laid out in an easy to read format (perhaps bullet points) and include

headline statistics from your research.

Background: You may want to use this section to state the

background/reasoning for the report and include national data or

data from NSS sources at Bristol.

Curriculum Audit: Use this section to present your curriculum audit,

highlighting areas of good practice as well as gaps in diversity that

could be improved.

Survey Findings: If you conducted a survey, present your findings here. If

you had a lot of responses this may form the bulk of your report so don’t

be afraid to use subheadings!

Proposal/Recommendations: Propose ideas for improvement. You may

not have all the answers but one of your recommendations could be

for you and the teaching staff to set up a working group with other

students to investigate the possibility of liberating the curriculum

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Making a change

Now you have some evidence it’s time to start making a change!

Bristol Futures

While studying at Bristol, our students gain a wide range of knowledge and

skills that are not only vital to getting the most out of their time at university,

but also in preparing them for whatever comes next. The University are

currently exploring how to improve the curriculum through Bristol Futures.

Bristol Futures is being designed with input from academic schools,

prospective applicants, current students, and employers to clearly define

what makes the ‘Bristol Graduate’ unique.

The development of these transferable skills and attributes will be built around

three pathways with enhanced opportunities for placements, volunteering

and internships:

Innovation & Enterprise

Global Citizenship

Sustainable Futures

Aligned with these pathways, three optional non-credit-bearing courses will

be introduced in 2017.

You can input into Bristol Futures by getting in touch with the Sustainability

Team.

Your representatives

Talk to your course and faculty reps who are there to provide a link between

the student body and staff. Get them to invite you to relevant meetings and

raise your findings and concerns at Staff Student Liaison Committees, Faculty

Committees.

Reps often tell us that they struggle to get students to engage with them and

give them feedback, so don’t be afraid to ask for their help and support.

You’ll most likely find that they are thrilled to work with you. Course Reps can:

Raise your concerns at meetings/invite you to meetings with staff

Email all students via Blackboard

Upload a survey to Blackboard

Bring up the issue at Course Rep Forums with other reps in the Faculty

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

Your lecturers

If you know of lecturers that are sympathetic to your cause send them the

report into your findings and arrange to have a chat with them. The

Sustainability team has access to members of the Education for Sustainable

Development Staff Network and may be able to find you more staff that will

be interested in your findings.

Speak to your Unit Director or Programme Director

If it’s just one unit you're trying to change, then you’ll need to speak to the

Unit Director, if it’s your entire course you will need to speak to your

Programme Director. Arrange a meeting with them to present to your

findings. There are some important things to remember:

It is important to frame sustainability audits as a chance for enhancing

the curriculum rather than an intrusion into academic freedom. Careful

consideration of issues of sustainability can improve the experiences of

both students and staff.

If they agree to a curriculum review, ask to continue to be involved in

the process to ensure that you get the outcomes you want.

If they are resistant to change, don’t give up! The Sustainability Team is

here to help and can help you use other mechanisms to challenge the

curriculum.

You CAN make a change

You may think that there is no way you can have an impact on your

curriculum. Well, you can and there are students currently working towards

curriculum change here at Bristol. And at Manchester they have already

had a huge impact!

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Hannah Tweddell University of Bristol Students’ Union January 2016

The Post-Crash Economics Society – Manchester University

A group of students at Manchester University were inspired to start the Post Crash Economics

society after attending the Bank of England’s Conference – ‘Are Economics Graduates Fit for

Purpose?’. The students were intrigued and excited to hear about the event. The economics

we were learning seemed separate from the economic reality that the world was facing,

and devoid from the crisis that had made many of us interested in economics to begin with.

Through our own research, we began to learn more about economics. We examined how its

mainstream had begun to be dominated by a certain kind of economics, often referred to

as neoclassical, at the expense of other approaches. It was decided to set up a society that

would bring this discussion to Manchester.

The society went on to organise a lecture series in parallel to their course that explored

alternative economic arguments. They wrote a report and lobbied the University to make

their education fit for purpose. This has led Manchester University to implement curriculum

change to make the course more relevant in post economic crash times.

You can read about the society on their website.

Pop into the Union and have a chat with the Sustainability team and see

what you can achieve.

Remember it is YOUR education and YOUR experience and YOU can make a

change!

Guide