{"id":6131,"date":"2014-11-07T07:14:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T07:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6131"},"modified":"2014-11-07T07:14:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T07:14:33","slug":"a-reply-from-hefce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2014\/11\/07\/a-reply-from-hefce\/","title":{"rendered":"A reply from HEFCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 23rd, I wrote to Hefce's CEO, Professor Madeleine Atkins, about the\u00a0Council's new (but still draft) Sustainable Development Framework. \u00a0My\u00a0purpose was to say that I hoped that\u00a0a sentiment which Hefce expressed in 2009 would\u00a0be included in the 2014 document. \u00a0This sentiment was:<\/p>\n

It remains our view that the greatest contribution that universities and colleges can make to sustainable development is through the values, skills and knowledge that students learn and put into practice.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My original letter is here<\/a>, and the response from Hefce is set out below. \u00a0 My reflections on the response are at the foot of the post.<\/p>\n

Dear Bill<\/p>\n

HEFCE, Sustainable Development and Student Learning<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you for your email which Madeleine and I have discussed; Madeleine has asked me to reply on her behalf.<\/p>\n

I think I should start by saying that the style of the new framework is quite different to the 2009 document and it is also substantially shorter.\u00a0 We have tried to make it more engaging and to make points through case studies and examples of what we and others are doing.\u00a0 The specific assertions that you highlight are not included however I hope you will feel that the new document is consistent with them and that they are supported by the actions we report.<\/p>\n

The new framework has been structured so that one of the three sections covers HEFCE\u2019s role in engaging students in sustainable development.\u00a0 To give you a flavour of this section, it includes; NUS commitment; a figure showing the results of the HEA:NUS survey of students; the HEA and the Green Academy and continuing encouragement for their work; \u00a0the \u2018Leading Curriculum change\u2019 project at Gloucester; the QAA guide; case studies on Education for Sustainable Development in the formal and informal curriculum, the \u00a35M Students\u2019 Green Fund (which will engage 50,000 students); the NSS and examples of Green Gown winners.\u00a0 \u00a0We also confirm that the \u2018Catalyst Fund will continue to be open to innovative sustainability projects where these meet the criteria for the fund.\u2019<\/p>\n

I hope these comments go some way to allaying your concerns.\u00a0 The framework will be published at the end of November and I would be happy to meet after that if you would like to do so.\u00a0 The intention is that we can use the framework \u2013 and the other good things going on in the sector \u2013 to make further progress.<\/p>\n

Best wishes<\/p>\n

Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n

Steve Egan, Deputy Chief Executive<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

........................................<\/p>\n

So, what can we\u00a0make of this? \u00a0As\u00a0everyone\u00a0taking part in the various consultations around this document knows, this sentiment was omitted from the original draft of the document \u2013 something I pointed out to Hefce at the time. \u00a0On being told that there was still no sign of it in the latest (October) draft, I wrote the letter to see whether, at this late stage, they might\u00a0be nudged into\u00a0inserting it. \u00a0I realised it was a long shot.<\/p>\n

You\u00a0now have to wonder whether\u00a0Hefce still thinks this about student learning. \u00a0A generous reading of Steve Egan's letter (particularly the 2nd paragraph) might lead you to suppose that this remains the case. \u00a0On the other hand, now that what I have called a sentiment<\/em>, Steve now terms an assertion<\/em>, you do have to wonder.<\/p>\n

It is hard to see what Hefce has gained by all this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 23rd, I wrote to Hefce's CEO, Professor Madeleine Atkins, about the\u00a0Council's new (but still draft) Sustainable Development Framework. \u00a0My\u00a0purpose was to say that I hoped that\u00a0a sentiment which Hefce expressed in 2009 would\u00a0be included in the 2014 document....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}