Harnessing Academic Quality Processes to address Sustainability in Higher Education Courses: Issues and Opportunities in the UK

To mainstream education for sustainability across all courses in a higher education institution, there is clear value in harnessing academic quality processes, which regulate taught courses’ approval and enhancement. For UK universities, there has been slow progress to date in making sustainability feature in such processes and there is a lack of knowledge about what influences academic quality processes to be used in this way and of the impacts that result. This study addresses this knowledge gap using data from an online survey of staff in UK universities (n=84) and evidence from 11 universities taking part in a one-year collaborative project to enhance their use of academic quality processes to better address Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Our findings show that whilst institutional commitments to sustainability are now widespread, the adoption of academic quality processes to embed sustainability in the curriculum lags behind. Even where processes mention sustainability, this is frequently viewed as an ineffective “tick-box” exercise. To achieve impactful ESD adoption, academic quality processes that address sustainability rely upon a strong enabling environment. Key enabling factors include: strategic commitment to sustainability; available ESD expertise from staff mentors; and clear examples of strong ESD practice and associated academic quality documentation.