Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at RGU is a major strategic project of explicitly embedding sustainability in the curricula of all RGU courses. It sits alongside the University’s strategic commitment to playing our role in creating a more sustainable future.
Through SDG 4: Quality Education, it aims to: “Ensure all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.”
Insights from the our Student Voice Course Feedback indicated 91.6% student satisfaction with Sustainable Development, evidencing a high level of student satisfaction with RGU’s ESD offer.
We know that sustainability and climate change will govern students’ careers, lives, and personal choices or circumstances like never before, with the latest SOS Sustainability Skills Survey confirming 88% of students agree their place of study should actively incorporate sustainable development. In comparison, 81% would like to see sustainable development actively promoted across all courses.
Our ESD Aims
- To equip all students with the subject knowledge and skills relating to sustainability that are relevant to their field of study;
- To cultivate values, attitudes and behaviours that support the imperative for creating a more sustainable future;
- To enable each student to clearly articulate the relationship of their subject to the theme of sustainability, the role that their subject has to play in addressing the UNSDGs, and their personal position and ambitions relative to this.
- To empower students to contribute positively to the creation of a sustainable future.
All of our academic schools were tasked with evaluating the representation of sustainability across their cross provision and drafting their own position statements on sustainability. The position statements include how sustainability is interpreted and what UNSDGs their courses align. These position statements are not set in stone and will develop and evolve with each making their own enhancements over the coming months and years.
When it comes to teaching students, the work of each of the academic schools at the University has a wide scope and many of the modules taught align with at least one UNSDG or UNESCO ESD competency in some form.