October 2013

  • Off to Beijing

    I'm off to the 6th Beijing International Forum on ESD.  The theme is Education for Sustainable Development: Education for Tomorrow – The Decade Review and Future Prospects. I'll be speaking on: The Development of ESD indicators – exploring frameworks and criteria. The...

  • Just minding the GAP

    Later this month, UNESCO’s governing bodies will consider a draft of a Global Action Programme [GAP] on ESD with a view to forwarding it to the UN General Assembly in 2014.  The plan is that the GAP will replace the Decade, and...

  • A great deal from QAAHEA

    I understand that the QAAHEA's soon-to-be-revealed ESD guidance document for universities will set out over 50 new learning outcomes.  That is, it will specify 50+ additional things that graduates should be able to know, understand and be able to do after...

  • Educate business leaders in line with UN development goals

    This was the thrust of an FT Soapbox piece the other day.  It said: Management education must produce leaders who can lead companies in line with UN development goals.  In particular, the article arued that ... "Business school deans need to...

  • A postcard from ELSA to Hefce about the HEA

    The English Learning and Sustainability Alliance [ELSA] has contributed to Hefce’s review of the UK's Higher Education Academy. ELSA brings together England’s key stakeholder groups with interests in learning and sustainability in order to inform national debates and influence policy...

  • A straight bat from the DfE

    Anyone enquiring, as a colleague did recently, about what England's Department for Education is 'doing' about sustainable development, gets a response like this: The Department for Education is committed to sustainable development.  As set out in our current Business Plan, covering...

  • A new american university – embracing complexity, though none too clearly

    Thanks to Geoff Rose for pointing me towards Arizona State University's ambitions to be a new american university.  ASU's website says this about its objectives ... ASU is a force that creates meaningful change. ASU has changed the objectives for...

  • Why is no one in government worried about climate change anymore?

    My favoured explanation for now is that they think there's no particular urgency, compared, say, to deficit reduction, unemployment, sorting out the EU, reforming the banks, the need to keep the lights on, and the threat from Ukip [that is,...