Executive Summary
The UK′s new sustainable development strategy - Securing the Future: delivering the UK sustainable development strategy (2005) - emphasises the role that education can play in both raising awareness among young people about sustainable development and giving them the skills to put sustainable development into practice. It places priority on the development of sustainability literacy as a ′core competence′ among graduates. A similar emphasis is provided by the United Nation′s commitment to a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014.
The Higher Education Academy has responded by commissioning:
(i) This study, ′Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Current Practice and Future Developments′ and
(ii) Individual projects to be undertaken by participating Subject Centres (SC) to examine the status and understanding of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in their subject communities. These were carried out separately but their results have been incorporated into this report.
This report is the culmination of a six-month investigation into how different subject disciplines taught within the higher education system are contributing to creating sustainability literate graduates. By undertaking such an investigation, the Academy sought to identify good practice in approaches to teaching and curriculum development; what barriers exist in embedding sustainable development in institutional teaching and learning strategies; as well as assessing the support required for widening and deepening the embedding process.
The approach adopted throughout the research has been non-prescriptive, open and participatory.
The report is a quick assessment of the current state of ESD, not a comprehensive review. Nevertheless it represents the first interdisciplinary and integrated investigation into ESD and its implementation within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) within the UK. (Orig.)