Staff and students share ideas on liberating the curriculum

6 Jun 2012

Students and staff from colleges and universities across Scotland took part in a day aimed at sharing ideas on how to further embed sustainability into the curriculum.

Image © Image © Ric Lander

The Liberating the Curriculum event was organised by the People & Planet Sustainable Futures project in partnership with EAUC and Scotland’s Colleges. Taking place on 1st June this marked the culmination of a year long effort to increase student-led activity on sustainability issues across Scotland.

Education for sustainable development is gaining momentum within colleges and universities with twice as many institutions including sustainability in the curriculum according to this year’s People & Planet Green League.

The day started with a welcome from John Salter of Scotland’s Colleges. Jimmy Brannigan from EAUC then gave an overview of the current status of education for sustainable development in the college and university sector.

This was followed by parallel workshops sessions on greening vocational courses including health & beauty and the built environment and how students can influence their curriculum by working with course reps from Sparqs.

Following a short coffee break, there were workshops about a establishing a Regional Centre for Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development to celebrate and bring together work being done in Scotland, as well as about the Higher Education Academy’s Green Academy programme, a pilot rolled out to help staff embed ESD in the curriculum.

After lunch and a further chance to network, came the final set of workshops. These included sessions on the University and College Union’s Green Skills Manifesto which looked at how to campaign for investment in education and training for a new green economy, as well as the Autonomous University Edinburgh’s Learning for Change Manifesto which showed how students can help shape policy to embed education for sustainable development.

The day ended with staff and students having a chance to share ideas and action plan in the World Café session.

Delegates went home inspired to work to embed sustainability across the curriculum and plan to meet again to continue the discussions in the new year. If you are interested in being part of this discussion about education for sustainable development please contact us

Keep checking the Sustainable Futures website for news of future events on embedding sustainability in the curriculum!