March 2016

  • A place of mind

    I've long viewed the University of British Columbia as the place to emulate and learn from when it comes to an all-round approach to sustainability, albeit with a critical eye on what they've not managed to do yet. They have...

  • BIS promotes sustainability in universities – up to a point

    Sustainability is mentioned seven times in the 2016 grant letter from BIS to Hefce.  But all in the 'endurability' sense, where the focus is financial and/or economic. Quite a change from previous years when everyone at least pretended to take the...

  • Responses to the latest NUS survey

    This year’s sustainability skills survey by the NUS has resulted in over 9000 responses from higher and further education institutions, and from sixth-form Colleges. The results will be available shortly, following data analysis; meanwhile, the pattern of responses has thrown up useful comparative...

  • More pressure to come for the NHS

    I see that Earth Hour has come round again.  It's like birthdays – relentless. WWF urges us to switch off our lights on March 19th at 2030 "to show we care about our brilliant planet".  As this will be over two...

  • Teacher Education in Motion

    I'm in Zurich to speak at a conference organised by Education-21, where the key questions are: What does a desirable future look like?   What do teachers need on their professional paths in order to move in this direction? The event...

  • My day in court

    Well, that should really be: An afternoon at the University of Bath Court, but ... I went to the Court meeting, which was informative and lively.  I also went to a lecture beforehand with the title: Empowering Higher Education for a Sustainable...

  • 5 perspectives on environmental education

    The NAEE blog has a recent, and rather skeptical, post about a paper in EER.  This is: Fraser J, Gupta R & Krasny ME (2015) Environmental Education Research 21(5) 777-800 I read it when it first emerged, and also wondered how...

  • A compass for the sustainable development goals

    GRI, the UN Global Compact, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), have developed the idea of an SDG Compass following extensive consultations with companies, government agencies, universities and NGOs.  They say that the Compass explains how the SDGs will...

  • The purpose and quality of education in England

    I've been reading the arguments made following the recent House of Commons Education select committee call for submissions on the purpose and quality of education in England.  Written evidence was invited to address the following: What the purpose of education for children of...

  • What's the EU ever done for us?

    What's the EU ever done for us? is clearly a topical question, if not always an easy one to answer.  Here's an answer of sorts that I recently received from 'the continent' ... "Not much, apart from: providing 57% of our trade;...