Building the sustainable university

On 19 September 2008 the Faculty of Laws and the Environment Institute, UCL, held a symposium on the concept of the sustainable university, sponsored by UKCLE.

Below is a report on the main themes of the day from Jane Holder (UCL) – contact Jane on e-mail: jane.holder@ucl.ac.uk for further information on the symposium or on ESD at UCL.

The sustainability message is now hitting higher education! For a long while the education for sustainable development (ESD) movement seemed to be confined to schools, but now it is spinning in many directions, involving all education sectors and creating research and learning networks which locating sustainability in the mainstream of education policy and practice.

UCL’s sustainable university symposium sought to move beyond the typical concern with the curriculum to question more fundamentally, and hopefully more radically, the role of the university in ‘sustaining the world’. We have put together a list of good practice examples highlighted on the day.

Seven key themes emerged from the papers and discussions:

• active community participation – a key indicator of a university’s sustainable development strategy should be its engagement with the local community. The ideal is to recognise the permeability of the university beyond a traditional ‘town and gown’ approach, but the question remains, how can the university reach into the community, particularly at a time in which many are striving to operate in a global education marketplace, and how can this be evaluated as a part of a university’s commitment to the social justice aspects of sustainability?
• student involvement – the desirability of involving students in decision making relating to sustainability and reforming resource use was clear from the experience of many of those attending the symposium. Much of this type of work on behalf of and by students might be seen to fall within the category of ‘social learning’, a buzzword amongst sustainable development theorists, which might lead to long term changes in academic and professional behaviour.
• curriculum development – the integration of sustainability into the curriculum can be compared to the gender/equality mainstreaming debate, and radical proposals were aired at the symposium, such as a cross-discipline degree with a common first year followed by specialist options (the logical conclusion of which is a Faculty of the Environment), as well as innovative approaches within individual disciplines
• grand challenges: sustainable cities – different sustainability challenges and opportunities face campus universities and those in cities. Universities in London, given the sheer size of the estate, the number of employees, large scale use of resources, and opportunities for reconfiguring learning, decision making and networking, are a very interesting prospect for study – the practice of sustainability in the higher education sector can provide a real world laboratory for research into problems of social change and regeneration.
• integration – the most effective and innovative examples of ESD seek to integrate academic expertise and are often clustered around a cross-disciplinary centre or theme, for example UCL’s Environment Institute and the Centre for Sustainable Futures at Plymouth
• networks – the unique opportunities for networking in the academic community offer particular advantages in ESD – graduate networks provide opportunities for social learning, drawing students back to share their experiences of policy, charity, NGO, government and business
• high level support – identified as key to successful initiatives in the curriculum and more broadly. Leith Sharpe’s Green Campus Initiative at Harvard (now the Office for Sustainability) was much cited as a shining example of what can be achieved with resources and freedom of action.

The way forward

The symposium made clear that a great deal of activity and exciting practice is currently taking place in higher education, albeit in pockets, and generated a genuine sense of opportunity.

Interesting initiatives are already taking place at UCL, and the Environment Institute is keen to move forward by coordinating the collection of good practice case studies, creating a network of environmental graduates and running regular seminars on ESD topics. Sessions are already planned on curriculum development, engaging the local community and social justice, and funding issues.

The race is on to become the first ‘transition university’!

Last Modified: 4 June 2010