Education for Sustainable Development
Sustainable development (SD) is an umbrella term for the processes that will enable humanity to move towards an environmentally, socially, economically and culturally sustainable world.
Universities have a vital part to play, not only through our research activities but through the extent to which our curricula support Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), also known as Education for Sustainability (EfS) - that is, the range of knowledge, values and skills that all 21st century graduates will need, whatever their subject of study or the professional context in which they operate:
" In a nutshell: sustainability education prepares people to cope with, manage and shape social, economic and ecological conditions characterised by change, uncertainty, risk and complexity." (extract from a very clear and user-friendly guide by Professor Stephen Sterling, The Future Fit Framework: An introductory guide to teaching and learning for sustainability in HE. )
ESD is usually linked to global citizenship - see for instance, one subject-specific example "The Global Engineer"). The University Corporate Plan 2007-12 states that the university will “adapt the curriculum so as to increase the preparedness of Brighton graduates to operate in a complex global context, with an understanding of sustainable development” so that by 2012 it will have "integrated sustainable development and global learning perspectives into new courses, where appropriate, as they are developed and into present curricula as courses are reviewed”. This commitment reflects the priority given to these issues by the University community, government, professional bodies and a wide variety of employers.
