Students driving curriculum quality
for sustainability
A blueprint to raise quality and support progress in sustainability learning
Between February 2022 and June 2023, University of Gloucestershire was funded by the UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), to lead an innovation project in Education for Sustainability (EfS) to drive up quality in sustainability learning and help to mainstream this within university courses.
Funded by the QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project fund, the project ran in partnership with King’s College London and University of the Arts London: London College of Fashion.
The purpose of this project was to empower students to ask questions about sustainability in their course experience and identify powerful sustainability learning, and to equip academic teams with simple principles to assess levels of integration of Education for Sustainability into courses any subject area.
Why is the project important?
Project overview from University of Gloucestershire team
Project purpose from the student viewpoint
Project outputs
The project involved student co-creation and was based on an approach to assessing progress and quality in EfS developed by University of Gloucestershire. The package of resources found in this website include:
- A ‘blueprint’ of quality principles and criteria for EfS – with potential for use and adoption in flexible ways by course teams, students, academic developers or sustainability staff, to raise EfS quality in university courses
- An ‘anti-greenwash education kit’ for students – designed by the student team and based on student feedback, with speed-training tools to empower students to rate EfS learning in their courses and examples in practice. Thanks to QAA for providing post-project hosting of this resource, for the benefit of all students across the sector.
About the project
Find out more about the project’s purpose and activities.
Anti-greenwash
Education Kit
Use the EfS speed training tool, rate your course and drive change.
Sector review
Find out why this project is cutting edge.
acknowledgements
The project team would like to thank the QAA and its Student Strategic Advisory Board for their dedicated support to the project mission, with particular thanks to Kerr Castle and Amy Spencer for their help.
Thank you to all the project partners in the core team for their wise contributions that have enriched the project and ensured its success, to all the student assessors whose feedback has informed its outcomes, and to Professor Daniella Tilbury for valued advice and perspective on quality issues in EfS.