Responsible Institutions Research Internship

Between October 2019 to April 2020, EAUC-Scotland, on behalf of the Responsible Universities Group Scotland (RUGS) hosted Sonya Peres as the Responsible Institutions Research Intern. The internship aims were to explore and produce resources to support sustainability in the HE sector in priority areas identified by RUGS. Priority areas included: 

1. Business Air Travel 
2. Single-use plastics 
3. the Use of the Sustainable Development Goals 

Below is a collated list of resources produced during the internship: 

• The Travel Better Package Resources 
• My Blog, How I will Travel Better: my Journey with flying
• Travel Better Package Promotional Video
• Academics who Travel Better: Dr. Elspeth Jajdelska
• Academics who Travel Better: Dr. Charlotte Rae
• Academics who Travel Better: Dr. Rachel Howell 
• The Travel Better Webinar 
• The Travel Better Workshop
• Presentation on Travel Better Package for the Roundtable on Sustainable Academic Business Travel
• 6 Tips to Address Air Travel at your Institution 
• Sorting Through the 'Single-Use' Problem: An Overview of Initiatives to Prevent and Reduce Single-Use Items in Further and Higher Education Institutions
• Internationalisation and Air Travel: A Preliminary Overview of Opportunities and Challenges to Reducing Air Travel for non-Domestic Students in Scotland
• The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and the UK Higher Education Sector: An overview of how UK universities contribute to the SDGs

Key contributions made by the internship include:

• Engaging over 40 FHE institutions in discussions about air travel 
• Producing a novel self-assessment tool to help justify individual flights 
• Including the insight and experiences of international students in discussions on internationalisation and air travel 
• Identifying opportunities, challenges and areas for further research in internationalisation amid the climate crisis 
• Sharing global best practice on tackling disposable culture through semi-structured interviews