Canterbury Christ Church University. Green Academy case study

Transcription

1 Canterbury Christ Church University Green Academy case study

2 Case study Canterbury Christ Church University Key features: embedding sustainability in strategic planning, while stimulating organic growth; using sustainability as a vehicle for delivering key strategic objectives through a Futures Initiative ; resetting the approach to the formal curriculum from a compulsory module to bottom-up, facultyled curriculum development; encouraging the integration of sustainability across both formal and informal curriculum through funding projects at programme level; placing critical thinking about wicked problems at the centre of the agenda. Context Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) was founded in 1962 as St Martin s Priory, providing training for just 70 student teachers. In the following 50 years it has grown into a university of 20,000 students and 1,800 staff, with a focus on delivering professional training in the education and health and social care sectors, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the arts, humanities and social and applied sciences. It is spread over five campuses in the Kent and Medway areas, and most of its students are drawn from its home county. 41% of its students are part-time, which partly reflects the institution s orientation to the education and health professions. It is a Church of England Foundation and continues to emphasise the values of the Church in its work. This provides an important underpinning to its engagement with sustainability, which resonates with Church values such as stewardship. Until recent years, the University s engagement with the sustainability agenda was, in common with many other institutions, confined to a few bright spots, disciplines with an environmental interest or focus, notably Geography and geography education. Furthermore, unlike many other universities, the University s student body has not traditionally played a lead role in developing sustainability learning opportunities on campus, in the informal curriculum. The student profile is skewed towards adults

3 many of whom have domestic commitments and two-thirds of whom live off campus. It is important for activities or courses to be credit-bearing if they are to attract high take-up. It can be hard to develop and sustain momentum in non-core activities; the People & Planet university group, for example, is dormant. Corporately, engagement with sustainability can be traced back to around 2006, when the forerunner to the Education for Sustainable Development Committee was established. The Committee drew its membership from a wide span, including, for example the University s Volunteering Co-ordinator. Progress followed, such as the achievement of Fairtrade status in Addressing the issue of how best to ensure that sustainability is articulated within the formal curriculum, the Committee oversaw the development of an open module, available to all students within the University General Modular Scheme. However, the module suffered from low take-up, a problem shared by all open cross-curricular modules: not being related to any one discipline, there was no incentive for teaching staff to promote it to students, preferring instead to recommend related modules since these would reinforce a student s discipline-based learning. Searching for an alternative, the Committee developed the concept of a compulsory module, Christ Church It was at this point that the opportunity of Green Academy presented itself. In parallel with these developments in the practical area of curriculum, developments were also taking place at the level of corporate strategy. In January 2010 the University made its first corporate appointment related to sustainability in the form of the Sustainability Development Manager. A new Vice-Chancellor was also appointed in the academic year with a proactive approach to the subject and a review of the Strategic Plan was taking place. Sustainability was one of the themes of the review and accompanying consultation process, with a working group on environmental responsibility and sustainability having responsibility for the theme. This process contributed to an acceleration in the University s engagement with the topic and was in mid-flight at the time of the Green Academy. Impact of the Green Academy The University s Green Academy team was centred on staff who had been involved in the development of the Christ Church 2050 compulsory module and who had been working together for some time in various roles. For the team, and for the University s approach to sustainability, the Green Academy was an absolute turning point ; without it, they would not have come up with the same solutions to the issues they faced. Through the Green Academy, the team: rejected the idea of a compulsory module in favour of a broader approach that would embed sustainability in the core curriculum of each taught degree programme; embraced the notion of developing critical thinking skills through consideration of wicked problems that students will face in the future and made this a central concept in their approach. Underpinning these decisions was the appreciation the team obtained through the Green Academy that a compulsory approach would not secure the academic buy-in necessary in their particular context. They also developed an appreciation of the role that can be played by students in taking forward sustainability in both formal and informal curriculum situations. The upshot of these effects of the Green Academy was the development of the Futures Initiatives. In July 2011 the University senior management team was asked to consider the development of a holistic curriculum for the 21st century, and this subsequently developed into the Futures Curriculum element of the Futures Initiative. The vision behind the Futures Curriculum is of a holistic inter-curricular approach integrating formal, informal and campus curricula, ie a student s whole experience, with an emphasis on the formal curriculum. It is intended that the framework will provide the support staff and students need to realise this vision. It is conceived as a two-year plan to build capacity at this point, although achieving the vision is seen as a longer-term process, which may take up to ten years to achieve.

4 Corporately, the Futures Initiative has been phased to coincide with the strategic planning process. Indeed, the initiative is seen by senior corporate management as being incredibly valuable to delivering the Strategic Plan as a whole, and as the obvious vehicle for achieving many of the key objectives of the Strategic Plan. The Futures Initiative is nothing less than a programme for cultural change. Hence, in addition to the Strategic Plan having a separate chapter on environmental sustainability, sustainability in its wider form (embracing social, economic and political issues as well as environmental ones) runs throughout it. Chapter 12 of the Strategic Plan states that the University will seek to engage and inform students with a thorough understanding of sustainability issues, concepts and ethical considerations using critical and creative pedagogies, the physical example of the University estate and day-to-day practices. On the curriculum side, the Futures Curriculum enables the institution to realise its goal of being able to offer something distinctive compared to other universities, and being able to do so without creating something new, ie by doing the same things differently. More widely, the initiative is helping to reconfigure the relationship with students from being consumers to partners, co-producers and, indeed, change agents. It also helps with community visibility and the formation of partnerships with organisations beyond the institution, providing a rationale for engagement. The potential of the sustainability agenda to support other developments is thus being realised through the Futures Initiative. There is strong commitment at leadership level, with one of the pro-vice-chancellors having responsibility for what is now termed the Education for Sustainable Futures agenda. Curriculum development is being facilitated through the funding of specific projects. In October 2011 academic staff were invited to bid into a 75,000 fund to support the embedding of sustainability within the formal curriculum, with a strong emphasis on student participation. Support was offered by the sustainability team in the development of proposals. The chair of the Education for Sustainable Development Committee has given up his role as head of department for a year and is devoting 50% of his time to help in this process. Having developed strong commitment to sustainability at leadership level, the aim is to stimulate organic growth, and to challenge faculties to think about sustainability in new ways, and to ensure that the first projects supported are from outside the disciplines with a traditional sustainability focus. Funding of 2,000-3,000 per project is available, although higher levels are possible where appropriate. All faculties were represented in the first round of approved bids, with some projects being cross-department and some cross-faculty. By February 2012, seven projects had been agreed, with six pending and eight in development. This initial curriculum development work is intended to generate case studies which, it is hoped, will stimulate others to engage with the subject in future. These projects represent creative engagements with sustainability. For example, the Education Faculty is developing a module for sustainable teaching and learning for the BA Honours in Primary Education. The module is intended to form part of a revalidated curriculum at Level 6/7, and has involved students in drafting the wicked questions for a series of seminars to take place in September It is intended that each year the module will be revisited and evaluated by that year s cohort of students, thus ensuring that the module remains flexible and future-proof. Comments from students involved thus far include: it changed my view on sustainability, away from environmental issues and it s completely different to anything else we do. Projects also include areas outside academic disciplines. For example, Employability and Careers Services are taking forward a project to support the development of students employability, lifelong learning and citizenship competences through the development of the University s Skills Award. The Futures Initiative is also developing the educational potential of the University estate. The Bioversity initiative is intended to enhance biodiversity on campus within the context of the University being part of Canterbury s UNESCO World Heritage site, and will help to raise the profile of sustainability throughout the University. This project includes, among other things, the redesign of one of the University gardens as an orchard to include heritage apple varieties as an educational resource, and the development of a taxonomic garden in the science quad. These activities draw heavily on student volunteering for their success. CCCU has seen levels of discussion and debate on sustainability increase exponentially since The University sees sustainability as, in the words of one informant, a wonderful catalyst for reframing the curriculum ; it resonates with long-standing University values and is also congruent with cuttingedge thinking in academic disciplines. Through the Futures Initiative sustainability is being pushed into all areas of University life.

5 Contact us The Higher Education Academy Innovation Way York Science Park Heslington York YO10 5BR +44 (0) ISBN: The Higher Education Academy, 2012 The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is a national body for learning and teaching in higher education. We work with universities and other higher education providers to help bring about change in learning and teaching. We do this to improve the experience that students have while they are studying, and to support and develop those who teach them. Our activities focus on rewarding and recognising excellence in teaching, bringing together people and resources to research and share best practice, and by helping to influence, shape and implement policy - locally, nationally, and internationally. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the Editor. Such permission will normally be granted for educational purposes provided that due acknowledgement is given. To request copies of this report in large print or in a different format, please contact the communications office at the Higher Education Academy: or pressoffice@heacademy.ac.uk