EAUC launches new strategy

24th June 2024

EAUC has unveiled a new strategy, Accelerating Ambition and Impact, setting out the direction, pace and focus for its work over the next six years.

Launched to coincide with the start of EAUC’s 20th anniversary at its annual conference, the strategy builds on EAUC’s track record of promoting and supporting sustainability in education over the past two decades, whilst putting a renewed emphasis on the organisation’s role to foster inclusivity and catalyse systemic change.

New goals

With a refreshed vision of a post-16 education system that creates a world with sustainability at its heart, the new strategy sets out four key goals to achieve this ambition: 

1. Our members will be achieving their ambitious sustainability goals
2. All publicly funded post-16 education organisations in the UK and the Republic and Ireland will be engaged in sustainability action through our work
3. We will provide unparalleled expertise on sustainability in post-16 education
4. The systems and frameworks which shape our sector will promote and embed sustainability action.

Re-imagining the system 

Goal one focuses on its members to achieve their ambitious sustainability goals by 2030. It is envisaged this will be done by continuing to offer a wide range of events, programmes and projects in line with their needs.

Recognising the need to work at scale to address the climate and biodiversity crises, goal two includes new plans to reach beyond the current EAUC membership base to foster relationships with the diverse range of institutions across the post-16 education sector.

Meanwhile, goal 3 focuses on developing EAUC as a hub of sustainability expertise. Under this goal, plans are being developed to support research and ensure that insights from EAUC’s portfolio of local, national and international projects are systematically captured and shared to enable change to happen faster.  

Finally, the overall strategy boldly calls for transformation of sustainability action in the post-16 education sector. Goal four sets out plans to increase EAUC’s capacity to better track and inform policy developments, ensuring the frameworks that shape the post-16 education sector have sustainability embedded within them.

Charlotte Bonner, Chief Executive of EAUC, said:

“Our new strategy continues to put membership support front and centre of our work. It also recognises the need to be working with a broad range of stakeholders to build sustainability into the DNA of our sector, embed it in business as usual, and reimagine the system in which we work.”

Centring inclusivity

The strategy also presents sustainability action as an opportunity to repair historical damage, tackle systemic inequalities and foster inclusivity. In line with this, EAUC will work to ensure that a commitment to social justice, and to equity, diversity and inclusion is explicit through its work.

The strategy was launched at the EAUC Annual conference on Tuesday 25 June by EAUC Chief Executive, Charlotte Bonner, following consultation and development with members, staff and other stakeholders over the past year. 

“We hope the strategy provides a pathway to both support and challenge the sector to achieve the vision we all share,” said Charlotte in her speech.

The strategy starts today and runs until 2030, dovetailing with the intended target for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

You can read a summarised version of the strategy on our About Us page. You can also download a PDF version of the strategy.