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E. Michalopoulou et al.
Goals (SDGs) (United Nations 2015; Sachs 2012). These goals reflect our societies’
biggest concerns and aim to address humanity’s biggest challenges such as poverty
(SDG 1), inequalities (SDG 10) and climate change (SDG 13).
One key role that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have to play in this era
of the SDGs is in relation to SDG 4 (Quality Education). As educators, we foster
the leaders and SDG champions of tomorrow. As a result, it is imperative that these
graduates have an excellent understanding of the complexity of sustainability, the
urgency of global challenges and, most importantly, the impacts these challenges
will have on different societies. One way to help address this is by increasing student
engagement with sustainability within the HE curriculum and ESD. HE institutions
must strengthen this link between Education in Sustainable Development (ESD),
society and SDGs in order to ensure that graduates are appropriately equipped to
tackle a variety of challenges, reflected in the different SDG targets.
With both student and institutional demand for more ESD-related courses and
programs increasing, this paper presents, in detail, the development and delivery of
an award winning, blended learning ESD unit at the University of Bristol: the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU). It provides information to encourage and enable other
HEIs to replicate this unit, or develop their own. Such knowledge exchange between
HEIs can be critical, as it can allow for less time spent in the development stage
of such initiatives and more time on the delivery. This in turn can mean that more
graduate cohorts are graduating with the skills needed to address societal challenges.
Finally, this paper presents a detailed evaluation of the unit from the perspective of
students and staff alike, which can help other educators to benefit from the learnings
made during the development and delivery of three runs of the SDU.
The University of Bristol was one of the first UK universities to commit to the
SDG accord on 9th September 2017 (SDG Accord 2020), and on 17th April 2019 it
became the first UK university to declare a climate emergency (BBC 2019; Walsh
et al. 2020). The Institution has committed to delivering high quality, research-led
teaching that aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills that will enable
them to become future problem-solvers of these global challenges (Tierney et al.
2015; Michalopoulou et al. 2019). However, SD is not only an “end result”: it is
also a means to enable society to address contemporary challenges. Therefore, any
endeavour that sets out to explore the SDGs or local or global challenges must do
so through the same frameworks it tries to explore. For this reason, the SDU was
created with respect to, and in accordance with, the SDGs.
This paper will present the SDU developed as part of the Bristol Futures: Sustainable Futures pathway. It will discuss how this unit was developed, how it is delivered
and which SDGs and theoretical concepts it aims to present to the students, continuing the analysis of previous work (Michalopoulou et al. 2019). Additionally, this
paper will present which SDGs are used for the development and delivery of this
unit.
E. Michalopoulou et al.
Goals (SDGs) (United Nations 2015; Sachs 2012). These goals reflect our societies’
biggest concerns and aim to address humanity’s biggest challenges such as poverty
(SDG 1), inequalities (SDG 10) and climate change (SDG 13).
One key role that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have to play in this era
of the SDGs is in relation to SDG 4 (Quality Education). As educators, we foster
the leaders and SDG champions of tomorrow. As a result, it is imperative that these
graduates have an excellent understanding of the complexity of sustainability, the
urgency of global challenges and, most importantly, the impacts these challenges
will have on different societies. One way to help address this is by increasing student
engagement with sustainability within the HE curriculum and ESD. HE institutions
must strengthen this link between Education in Sustainable Development (ESD),
society and SDGs in order to ensure that graduates are appropriately equipped to
tackle a variety of challenges, reflected in the different SDG targets.
With both student and institutional demand for more ESD-related courses and
programs increasing, this paper presents, in detail, the development and delivery of
an award winning, blended learning ESD unit at the University of Bristol: the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU). It provides information to encourage and enable other
HEIs to replicate this unit, or develop their own. Such knowledge exchange between
HEIs can be critical, as it can allow for less time spent in the development stage
of such initiatives and more time on the delivery. This in turn can mean that more
graduate cohorts are graduating with the skills needed to address societal challenges.
Finally, this paper presents a detailed evaluation of the unit from the perspective of
students and staff alike, which can help other educators to benefit from the learnings
made during the development and delivery of three runs of the SDU.
The University of Bristol was one of the first UK universities to commit to the
SDG accord on 9th September 2017 (SDG Accord 2020), and on 17th April 2019 it
became the first UK university to declare a climate emergency (BBC 2019; Walsh
et al. 2020). The Institution has committed to delivering high quality, research-led
teaching that aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills that will enable
them to become future problem-solvers of these global challenges (Tierney et al.
2015; Michalopoulou et al. 2019). However, SD is not only an “end result”: it is
also a means to enable society to address contemporary challenges. Therefore, any
endeavour that sets out to explore the SDGs or local or global challenges must do
so through the same frameworks it tries to explore. For this reason, the SDU was
created with respect to, and in accordance with, the SDGs.
This paper will present the SDU developed as part of the Bristol Futures: Sustainable Futures pathway. It will discuss how this unit was developed, how it is delivered
and which SDGs and theoretical concepts it aims to present to the students, continuing the analysis of previous work (Michalopoulou et al. 2019). Additionally, this
paper will present which SDGs are used for the development and delivery of this
unit.