Sustainability
Education for sustainable development in the curriculum Sophie Arkoudis, Chi Baik, Ani Wierenga, Kath Williams (2018) Through Growing Esteem (2015) and the University’s Sustainability Charter and Strategic Plan 2017-2020, the University of Melbourne has committed to embedding sustainability across all aspects of the University, including to ‘inspire and support students to be leaders for a sustainable future’. This aspiration is also strongly reflected in University of Melbourne Graduate Attributes, especially the characteristics of Active Citizenship including: ‘high regard for human rights, social inclusion, ethics and the environment’ and ‘capacity to, through advocacy and innovation, lead change for a sustainable future’. Download PDF |
The University of Melbourne's Sustainability Plan Sustainability is deeply embedded in everything we do at the University of Melbourne. Our Sustainability framework - Charter, Plan and Report - articulates our commitment and enables us to implement new ways of governing and operating our organisation in a warming world. View website |
Education for sustainability in university curricula Peodair Leihy and Jose Salazar (2011) Education for sustainability (EfS) is education which seeks to achieve sustainability, with a particular focus on cultivating knowledge and skills to making a practical, ongoing difference. It comprises environmental, economic and cultural dimensions of sustainability. Australia has a National Action Plan for EfS. For Victoria’s universities, it represents a step beyond operational sustainability (eg ‘campus greening’) initiatives and education about sustainability; many advocates view it as something that can be imbued through all educational activities. Many enthusiastic environmentalists have pioneered EfS in Australian universities; the challenge now is to make it mainstream and accessible to newcomers to sustainability as an educational value. This report provides an account of the state of development of EfS in Victoria’s universities and is intended to inform government and other agencies and, especially, policy making within universities.This report establishes a picture of the state of play of EfS in Victoria's universities, but in so doing also considers the interactive dynamics between institutions. Download PDF |
Our faculty-based Sustainability Fellows are leading the integration of sustainability into the University’s core and compulsory undergraduate curriculum, fostering deeper understandings of sustainability’s relevance to all fields of endeavour, and contributing to the development of a University-wide, interdisciplinary community of practice. Launched in 2019, the Fellows Program underpins the University’s commitment – under its institutional Sustainability Framework - to ensure all undergraduates can apply sustainability knowledge and values in the context of their specific discipline or field of practice.