HEFCE Review concludes that stretching policies are required if HE is to become a leader in SD

20th February 2008

The key aim of the review was to devise a baseline of Sustainable Development activity in English Higher Education in order to measure progress over the longer term. The review examined the extent to which teaching, research and corporate and estates activities addressed SD – that is, our understanding and practice of how to balance economic, social and environmental factors in order to address major challenges such as climate change and the rapid depletion of natural resources.

• Overall: SD activity in Higher Education Institutes is still a patchy phenomenon that tends to be led by individual enthusiasts rather than being integrated into HEI systems and processes. Very few HEIs have integrated SD across the institution.

• Research: there is substantial SD research being undertaken in English HEIs, but it tends to be under-reported in the RAE process, both because the RAE has still not found an appropriate way to recognise inter-disciplinarity and because the academic journals that publish SD tend not to be among the most highly regarded journals in the various disciplinary fields.

• Teaching: there is much teaching of what the review called SD, but it is not always called by this name in the institutions concerned. It would be very controversial, and not desirable, for HEFCE to seek to impose a single definition of SD for teaching purposes.

• Estates and Corporate: Environmental performance across estates is varied. Improving performance is a substantial investment challenge for the future, given the age and condition of many HEI buildings.

The authors conclude that HEFCE could continue to seek to enable SD innovation in HEIs on an ad hoc basis but this will do little to make the sector a leader in SD terms. If it wishes to achieve this outcome (for example, such that the sector achieves the Government’s environmental targets ahead of schedule), it must persuade HEIs to adopt ambitious policies and practices including stretching targets in key environmental areas.

The review was commissioned by HEFCE and conducted by the Policy Studies Institute, the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment, University of Bath, and PA Consulting Group.

HEFCE Strategic Review of Sustainable Development in Higher Education in England Report to HEFCE by the Policy Studies Institute, PA Consulting Group and the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment. Available for download below or visit https://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2008/sustain.htm
for more information.