Academic opportunities

Here at BU, we define sustainable development according to the UN Global Goals, which work to create a better world by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is education that provides the knowledge, skills, behaviours and values needed to create a more equal, healthy and environmentally-friendly future. It empowers students to act and lead change to create this future, and we seek to embed it within all our programmes and disciplines.

The key roles of ESD are to:

• Play a transformative role in society by increasing awareness of global issues and developing personal capacity for change
• Foster the values, beliefs and behaviours that are important to a sustainable future in order to develop active, global citizens
• Enable us to understand how our lives are linked with others throughout the world
• Enable us to make decisions that consider the long-term future of all communities, protecting the natural environment while ensuring social justice and economic success.

In 2020, we set up the Sustainability Academic Network. With representatives from every academic department in BU, this group reports directly to the Sustainability Committee and leads on embedding sustainable development in our education and research across BU.

After holding workshops with all programme leads to discuss the UN Global Goals within courses during summer 2019, we also launched the ESD Community of Practice, which is a space for academics to share best practice on introducing and embedding ESD into their teaching. Our annual Excellence in Education for Sustainable Development Award recognises and rewards some of this best practice. 

At BU we continue to explore new ways to inspire our staff and students to understand sustainable development and its essential role in creating a just and fair society. This work is led by the Centre for Fusion Learning Innovation & Excellence (FLIE) and the Sustainability Academic Network. Our work includes:

• Recognising and showcasing inspiring ESD practice by our academics through our annual Excellence in ESD Award
• Facilitating the ESD Community of Practice, an informal network for staff to share and collaborate on ESD practice
• Delivering a sustainability module as part of the PGCert programme, which is delivered to all staff training to become a lecturer
• Actively promoting the SOS-UK SDG Teach-In
• Offering lectures from the Sustainability Team for a range of BU courses, from engineering to project management, and a sustainability workshop to student reps

We conduct an annual university-wide mapping process to assess how each unit aligns to the UNSDGs, using the UNESCO ESD Learning Objectives. The process has been developed by academics from each Faculty and the Sustainability Team: you can see the mapping tool here. You're welcome to use this tool at your university or school, but please let us know if you do!

In our first mapping, conducted in term 1 of the 2021-22 academic year, we found that 88% of programmes aligned to the UN SDGs and 40% include content around the climate and ecological crisis in every year of study.

Read more examples of ESD at BU or take a look at the FLIE blog for more information. 

If you are a staff member, join the ESD Community of Practice. The network of over 60 staff from across Faculties is welcome to all. In addition, make contact with your Sustainability Academic Network department representative. Get in touch with the Sustainability Team to discuss student assignment opportunities on our campus, to find out who your representative is or to join the ESD Community of Practice.

If you are a student, speak to your course leader about how the UN Global Goals are embedded in your course and how to include this in your assignments. You can also collaborate with BU through your assignments if you have an idea on how we could become more sustainable. Speak to your course leader, or email the Sustainability Team at [email protected] to find out more.

Education has a vital role in addressing the climate and ecological crisis, as it can provide the knowledge, skills and values to tackle it. An objective within our CECAP is for the academic community to align education and research with the crisis, in terms of appropriate programme content, research outcomes, and the way we operate, including increasing crisis awareness and literacy. The key recommendations are to: 

• Include the climate and ecological crisis in all levels of programmes in the indicative content of at least one unit per level by 2022/23 
• Continue to align all programmes to the UN SDGs
• Reward staff for aligning research with the crisis 
• Encourage staff and students to use BU as a Living Lab 
• Introduce staff and student development programmes, such as carbon literacy and climate resilience 

A Living Lab project could focus on a wide number of topics, including energy, transport, biodiversity, wellbeing, waste, food, behaviour change, community, our buildings and much more! If your project or research could help improve the University's environmental sustainability, we would love to hear from you. 

You can complete a Living Lab as a student researcher within your course or as a voluntary project. If you are an academic staff member, you can be a mentor to a student or host Living Labs as part of your assessments.

Any student or staff projects aiming to improve the sustainability of the University can have access to a large array of data, information, and contacts. 

Below is a list of potential future projects which you are welcome to take forwards, subject to your course requirements and discussions with the Sustainability Team. We really welcome new ideas for Living Labs research so if you have a suggestion for a project, let's talk!

Potential projects

• Staff and student interests and barriers in adopting low-carbon behaviours e.g. diet, travel 
• Improving ethical and Fairtrade offerings and uptake
• Sustainable procurement guidance and criteria development
• Air quality monitoring
• Mobility as a Service (MaaS) study
• Calculating the carbon emissions of courses
• Creating short film promoting sustainable behaviours e.g. cycling routes in Bournemouth
• Impact of local biodiversity and nature on wellbeing
• Opportunities to enhance biodiversity on campus
• Communicating sustainability within a university setting
• Impacts of Covid-19 on environmental performance
• Offsetting university emissions
• Investigation of links between wellbeing, nature and environmental sustainability

Datasets

We have an incredible amount of data at the university for you to use in your projects or courses. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Bees on campus: we have a beehive on Christchurch House that collects data on the bees behaviour. This dataset would be useful for anyone studying ecology or data science.
• Energy and carbon emissions data
• Waste data
• Food data