Global challenges

Sustainability is a core value in our strategic plan, and foregrounds everything we do and through this work, we are advancing education for sustainable development (ESD).

Professor Ruth Whittaker, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Students) and Professor Rusi Jaspal, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange) lead and champion the Global Challenges strategic initiative, including ESD.

The strategic initiative is governed by the Global Challenges Steering Group, where progress towards embedding ESD and the UN SGDs is reported and reviewed monthly through quality assurance and course development processes. Annually this progress is reported to the Brighton 2025 Programme Board.

Through our learning and teaching

Our students are engaged in a curriculum that equips them with the skills needed to be change-makers for a sustainable future. In addition to empowering them through opportunities to understand and address the UN SDGs, we have embedded this approach in the Brighton Graduate Attributes.

Through the attributes, all students are supported to develop skills and qualities to enable them to become: a critical thinker, engaged global citizen, confident communicator, inclusive collaborator, resilient self-advocate, solution-oriented innovator and a creative and confident user of digital technologies.

Our staff and students across academic schools are working together to actively engage with the UN SDGs.

• Our School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering has advanced sustainable architecture practices.
• Our School of Business and Law embeds the SDGs in its professional practices and research activities.
• The School of Humanities and Social Science has introduced modules framed around specific SDGs.
• The School of Sport and Health Sciences has committed to the Health Care Without Harm ‘Nurses Climate Challenge Europe’ and it takes a sustainable approach to practice in sport and healthcare.

And there are many more example from across our university community.

Professor Mark Devenney, Professor of Critical Theory, is the Global Challenges institutional lead and Dr David Walker, Associate PVC Education and Students, curriculum design lead with responsibility for integrating ESD within the curriculum.

Academic colleagues are supported in embedding ESD in the curriculum by the Global Challenges institutional lead, with subject leads developing specific curricula with their teams. Colleagues are also supported by the Learning and Teaching Hub with training and drop in sessions and during the periodic review process, as well as developing curriculum design resources.

Through our research and knowledge exchange

Our research makes a tangible difference to lives and environments, addressing global challenges and improving the world around us. Through our collaborations and partnerships, we share our insights, solve practical problems and shape debate around creating a better future.

We are committed to playing our part. Our contributions are numerous and varied. Our researchers are helping to reduce emissions and pollution, improve health and wellbeing, develop sustainable construction and design practices, advance inclusive art practice, promote peace in conflict-torn communities and tackle social injustice.

Find out more about our research with impact.

Through our public and community engagement

With an international reputation for our innovative approach to public and community engagement, we aim to address SDGs through our work – and inspire others to do so. We collaborate with our partners to tackle social disadvantage and inequalities and build sustainable communities.

Recent Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) results demonstrate our success in delivering diverse economic and social benefits with our partners. Our pioneering Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP) engages communities with research, combining knowledge and resources to address issues. Meanwhile our cultural institutions, including the Brighton CCA and the nationally-accredited Design Archives, enable us to reach and galvanise new audiences.

Not only do we widen participation through our outreach work, we also support schools in challenged communities and take immense pride in our students for their volunteering, entrepreneurship and community project endeavours.

Together, we create new knowledge with our communities – and put it to work.

Through our campus operations and organisational culture

Sustainability is embedded in our operations and everything that we do. Our sustainability campaign, c-change, sees us working with staff, students and the community at large to advance progress towards a fully sustainable university and ensure we are addressing global challenges by reducing our impact on the environment.

We have been ranked 33 in the People & Planet University League 2021 out of the 154 universities and higher education institutions in the UK, recognising our commitment to and progress made towards sustainability. Our work has included a focus on cutting our carbon emissions, increasing recycling rates, embedding sustainability across food and drink outlets, and investing ethically.

Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of all our activities.

The university was awarded a silver Athena Swan award in 2021 demonstrating our progress and impact in embedding gender equality across the institution. In 2019, we achieved a Race Equality Charter Bronze award, and are committed to improving representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students. We are a proud Stonewall Diversity Champion, a programme which supports and promotes fair practice in relation to the employment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff, reaffirming our commitment to equality for LGBT+ staff and students. We are a Disability Confident employer, which is a government scheme designed to support disability equality in staff recruitment and retention practices.

Additionally, the university has signed the non-disclosure agreement pledge from Can’t Buy My Silence, which is a campaign aimed at ending the misuse of non-disclosure agreements for those who experience sexual violence, harassment or abuse as outlined in our declaration.

“We the University of Brighton have signed the Can’t Buy My Silence pledge, to declare our commitment for never using non-disclosure agreements to silence who experience sexual violence, harassment or abuse at the University of Brighton. This has never been our practice and nor will it be in the future.”