With over 27,000 students and 2,700 staff dispersed across 3 campuses and the Jordanstown Sports Village, the University’s day to day activities have a considerable impact on the environment, society and the economy, both locally in Northern Ireland and globally.
Through our People, Place and Partnership Strategy, we want to deliver Sustainable Futures for All by delivering a transformative student experience, and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is key to how we will achieve that.
ESD is an educational approach focused on empowering our students with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to make informed decisions and take responsible actions that creates an economically viable, environmentally sound, and societally just world for present and future generations.
We do this through embedding the UN Sustainable Development Goals in our curriculum and developing a range of competencies in our students through teaching that is critical, inclusive and makes use of active learning.
Staff can access support for ESD in their modules and programmes through the Learning Enhancement Directorate via the staff below:
- Dr Amanda Platt, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education
- Dr Kieran Higgins, Lecturer in Higher Education Practice
The Sustainability website sets out the University’s strategic approach to managing its environmental impact and details the key initiatives both planned and in place to improve environmental performance. The sustainability office can be contacted via sustainability@ulster.ac.uk.
Components of ESD
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The Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) encompass 17 global objectives set by the United Nations in 2015, intended to be achieved by the year 2030. They aim to focus our attention on a wide range of social, economic, and environmental challenges to create a more sustainable, safer, and prosperous planet for all humanity. All staff should embed the SDGs and their related subject knowledge in their modules and programmes.