Part 1 - Orientation

Connecting EfS and Quality

Why connect these areas?

The sustainability agenda has steadily been making its mark in Higher Education at many levels:

• Stimulating new research agendas and forging inter-professional and cross-sectoral partnerships to lead investigations that will tackle pressing global issues;
• Driving corporate responsibility agendas and environmental management improvements across university estates, so that universities start to model good practice in sustainability;
• Encouraging universities to engage actively with their surrounding communities and to address local and regional issues, through their initiatives, events and services.

These are important sector contributions that recognise the need to respond to sustainability through the core operations of universities. The appearance of university performance rankings on sustainability, the emergence of sector-wide funding incentives, national awards and networking platforms, all underline the increasing level of attention to sustainability across the sector.

However, responding to sustainability through the fundamental educational purpose of universities has been a more complex challenge. Research among students and employers has pointed to the growing need for innovation in the curriculum to improve future sustainability skills, as shown by a selection of recent reports. Innovation in the curriculum has gathered pace through EfS, but developments have often been piecemeal and isolated, in individual modules or specialist courses, involving certain professional bodies or selected sectors of industry.

The literature in EfS sets out the desire and potential for wider change, so that EfS principles infuse teaching and learning practice across the Higher Education curriculum. EfS seeks fundamental changes of direction within education systems, drawing on theories of learning and recognising the change management issues at stake.

This vision of influencing the educational ‘core business’ involves system-wide curriculum change, which is neither easily nor quickly achieved. However, leading education and skills agencies are giving attention to this area through the publication of frameworks and guidance, as well as funding incentives, to support innovation and to signal the importance of the agenda for the sector.