Important: UKPSF Consultation

4th January 2011

Deadline for input is Monday 17 January 2011

Comments to info@eauc.org.uk 

Review of The UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) for Higher Education

The HEA is currently undertaking a consultation on the UK Professional Standards. This is an opportunity to ensure that the sustainability agenda is reflected appropriately in the UK PSF. One of the proposed revisions is the need for staff to understand the implications of the sustainability agenda for their roles. The EAUC is submitting a response on behalf of members. Please send your comments to the following suggested responses:

E. Sustainability
5.7 There is a growing and important focus on sustainability in higher education which impacts across the curriculum and influences approaches to teaching and learning. This means staff will increasingly need to understand and articulate the nature and value of the sustainability agenda. As a support for this, the revised UKPSF incorporates sustainability literacy within the new professional value of ‘global citizenship’.

Question 7
Comment is invited on the location of the sustainability focus within ‘global citizenship’, one of the Framework’s professional values.

C Professional Values
4. A commitment to the sustainability of higher education and the concept of global citizenship
— Knowledge of sustainable curriculum approaches and an understanding of its implications for personal, professional practice
— A pro-active approach to developing student literacy in this area
— Curriculum developments reflecting the above
___________________________________________________________________

Draft Questions and response from the EAUC

- Do we welcome the inclusion of Sustainability within the UKPSF?
EAUC - This is a welcome development and we strongly support it.

- Do we agree that sustainability is included in Global Citizenship?
EAUC - We welcome this inclusion because Global Citizenship promotes taking responsibility for global challenges for sustainable development, whilst the term ‘sustainability’ could potentially allow for a ‘theoretical’ and ‘non-committal’ approach.

- Do we agree with the terminology?
EAUC - The terminology is unclear. ‘A commitment to the sustainability of higher education and the concept of global citizenship’ could be interpreted as a commitment to ‘long lasting’ Higher Education and the concept of Global Citizenship. We recommend to be more explicit e.g. 'commitment to the principles of sustainability and the concept of global citizenship in Higher Education'.

-‘Knowledge of sustainable curriculum approaches and an understanding of its implications for personal, professional practice’
To our knowledge, sustainable curriculum means 'long lasting’ curriculum and does not necessarily mean 'sustainability' curriculum. We recommend to change this to ‘Knowledge of sustainability curriculum approaches and an understanding of its implications for personal, professional practice.’

- Any additional comments?
EAUC - Although sustainability and global citizenship go hand in hand, the relationship would not necessarily be obvious to practitioners and therefore we recommend to clarify the relationship e.g. ‘the paradigm of Global Citizenship underpins the Sustainability Curriculum’.

Questions for members
Please comment on the above draft response to the UKPSF framework by 17 January to info@eauc.org.uk.

To read the full consultation click here