Changes to rating principles and criteria
Of the 103 responses, 50 comments referred directly to one of the four quality principles. Of those 50, only 28 made a comment or suggestion about what should change, almost all to do with clarity and descriptions in the criteria, or seeking more examples, rather than disagreement with the principles.
In some cases where only 1 or 2 students commented on a particular theme, further testing would need to be done using a larger sample of institutions to determine if significant changes would be warranted.
Based on student feedback, we agreed to do the following things in the final framework:
Top change: decolonising learning
Students from all settings and the QAA student advisers felt that the framework should align EfS explicitly with the intersectional agenda around decolonising the curriculum. This helps to connect thinking and learning for both students and academics, to avoid treating these areas in silo and reinforce the need to connect the social, economic and environmental.
The final framework offers an alternative pathway to achieve Silver status, through learning activities that evidence decolonial thinking explicitly linked to environmental issues and concerns.
General improvements
- To avoid confusion around the term ‘profit’ being purely about making money, a clearer description of the economic dimension of the triple bottom line has been integrated
- Rating criteria laid out in a more visual way to make it clearer what is involved to achieve the next progress level, and that HE levels 4, 5 and 6 refer to undergraduate years 1, 2 and 3.
- Greater information provided about what ‘people’, ‘profit’ and ‘planet’ refer to, as well as unpacking where decolonial thinking and intersectionality relate
Changes to the student training tool
In developing the final output as a resource for students to help them familiarise with quality sustainability learning, ask questions about courses offering it, and enable them to talk with course teams about how courses could improve their EfS credentials, the following changes were made:
- A wider range of examples of what the triple bottom line looks like in practice in courses, as well as a statement on why it’s important in different subject contexts. Rating criteria are supported with more examples.
- Unpacking further what is behind the ideas around decolonial thinking and decolonising the curriculum, and explaining the intersectional links to pedagogy around EfS and sustainability.
- Adding a glossary of terms for further detail on concepts like decolonial thinking and less familiar specialist terms to do with curriculum design and sustainability, and consistent use of terms.
- Adding a transcript with each of the films to support English as a second language students.
Final blueprint
Access resources and view the final quality principles and rating criteria.