Education for Sustainable Development in HE
The QAA define Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as ‘the process of equipping students with the knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes needed to work and live in a way that safeguards environmental, social and economic wellbeing, both in present and future generations.’ (QAA ESD Guidance 2014)
ESD means working with students to encourage them to:
- consider what the concept of global citizenship means in the context of their own discipline and in their future professional and personal lives
- consider what the concept of environmental stewardship means in the context of their own discipline and in their future professional and personal lives
- think about issues of social justice, ethics and wellbeing, and how these relate to ecological and economic factors
- develop a future-facing outlook; learning to think about the consequences of actions, and how systems and societies can be adapted to ensure sustainable futures.
These wider goals to develop ‘sustainability literate’ graduates ready to face the environmental, social and economic challenges of the 21st century are incorporated into the University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy and Principles and Guidance for Undergraduate Course Design which seek to foster excellent teaching and curriculum design at Worcester.
Here, Dr Heather Barrett, University Academic Lead for ESD, provides an overview of University achievement and developing work on this important topic.
Globally, UNESCO has been promoting ESD since 1992. It led the UN Decade for ESD from 2005 to 2014 and is now spearheading its follow-up, the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD. On 25 September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the core of the 2030 Agenda are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The universal, transformational and inclusive SDGs describe major development challenges for humanity.
