Education is the key to advancing Education is the key to advancing the transition to more sustainable the transition to more sustainable ways of living.ways of living.

THE EARTH CHARTERTHE EARTH CHARTER

Centre for Excellence in Teaching & LearningCentre for Excellence in Teaching & Learning

CETL ESD background

• 2003 Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) announced Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) competition to recognise, reward and spread excellence in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

• 2005 UoP received 4 CETL awards in areas where it demonstrated excellence: – CETL Placement Learning in Health and Social Care

– CETL Higher Education Learning Partnerships

– CETL Experiential Learning

– CETL Education for Sustainable Development

HEFCE’s Strategy vision statement

‘Within the next 10 years, the higher education sector in this country will be recognized as a major contributor to society’s efforts to achieve sustainability – through the skills and knowledge that its graduates learn and put into practice, and through its own strategies and operations.’

…to transform the University of Plymouth from an institution characterized by significant areas of excellence in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to an institution modelling university-wide excellence and, hence, able to make a major contribution to ESD regionally, nationally and internationally.

Our vision

Development of the CSF

CETL

ESD

Now 5 years

Centre for Sustainable Futures

Core staff

David Selby Professor, Director.Alan Dyer, Co-Director.Anka Djordjevic, Administrator. Stephen Sterling, Schumacher Reader in ESDJamie Gray-Donald, Research FellowFumio Kagawa, Research Assistant.Olya Maiboroda, Research Assistant

Initial Fellows

Brian Chalkley, Professor of Geography in Higher Education,Mhairi Mackie Senior Lecturer in the School of ArchitectureLaurence Mee, Professor of Marine and Coastal Policy, SEOES,Jo Richards, Lecturer, SEOES, Link with Schumacher CollegePaul Murray Principal Lecturer in Environmental BuildingRob Parkinson Principal Lecturer in Soil Science in the School of Biological

SciencesSimon Payne, Head of the School of Sociology, Politics and LawColin Trier, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sciences, SEOES,Martyn Warren, Director of the Rural Futures Unit, School of Geography,Ian Bailey Lecturer in Human Geography in the Faculty of Social Science and

BusinessLinda Watson Principal Lecturer in the School of Architecture

Sustainability embraces environment, development, human rights, peace, intra-generational and inter-generational social justice.

Our understanding of ESD

ESD motivates, equips and involves individuals, and social groups in reflecting on how we currently live and work, in making informed decisions and creating ways to work towards a more sustainable world. ESD is about learning for change.

IUCN

Wider understanding of ESD

[ESD is] a process of learning how to make decisions that consider the long-term future of the economy, ecology and equity of all communities(Unesco, 2003)

students won’t just be told about sustainable development, they will see and work within it: aliving learning place in which to explore what a sustainable lifestyle means (Tony Blair, 2004)

sustainability literacy is important for employability, effective professionalism, economic performance, and social well being.

Four areas of focus

Curriculum

AIMS To enhance student and staff experience through embedding sustainability across the curriculum

To identify, encourage and reward good practice

To engage in curriculum and pedagogic renewal

OBJECTIVES

Campus

AIMSTo embed sustainability practice across the University of Plymouth

To enrich student involve-ment in sustainability

To green the campus

To change institutional policies

and practices

OBJECTIVES

Community

AIMSTo contribute to region through community partnerships, and to national developments through engagements with HEIs

To contribute to the SW region through community and organisational partnerships

To engage with subject centres, HEA, HEIs, and national players

OBJECTIVES

Centre for Sustainable Futures

AIMS To develop CSF, and to contribute to and disseminate research nationally and internationally

OBJECTIVESTo develop a leading Centre for practice, research and theory development, and in dissemination at national, regional and international levels

Education SEOES Law

Geography Architecture and Design

Agriculture and Rural Management

UoP Colleges(SCAT, Bicton, Cornwall)

Rural Resource Management

Biological Sciences

Humanities

Psychology

Plymouth Business School

Social Science (selected departments)

Mathematics and statisticsSchool of Engineering

Peninsula Medical SchoolOther University of Plymouth Colleges

Computing, Communications &

Electronics Health & Social Work

Graphic Design

Art History

Fine Arts

Publishing

Theatre and Performance

Media and Photography

English and Creative Writing

Core group

(First wave)

2nd wave

3rd wave

Long-term goal: Sustainability literacy

As a result of the CETL, by 2010, to varying levels all our students will:

Understand the need for change to a sustainable way of doing things, individually and collectively

Have sufficient knowledge and skills to decide and act in a way that favours sustainable development

Be able to recognise and reward other people’s decisions and actions that favour sustainable development

Commitment

…we believe this CETL will become a national (and indeed international) “flagship for ESD. As such, it has the potential to make very important contributions to this rapidly emerging area of academic and public interest. This bid has the University’s unreserved support.

Yours sincerely