Education for Sustainable Development

Education for Sustainable Development

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can be understood as “a lens that permits us to look critically at how the world is and to envision how it might be and equips us to deliver that vision” (QAA, 2021). ESD encourages colleagues, across all academic disciplines and subject areas, to think holistically about how learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environments can equip learners with key competencies to create and pursue futures taking in to account social, cultural, economic and environmental impact of their decisions and actions (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO, 2019).

ESD helps colleagues to consider how subject-specific learning outcomes might interconnect with the ESD competencies, the UN SDG’s and sustainable development more broadly. 

• Sustainable Development - an aspirational ongoing process of addressing social, environmental and economic concerns to create a better world.  
• Education for Sustainable Development - the process of creating curriculum structures and subject-relevant content to support sustainable development. (QAA, 2021).

FROM NEWCASTLE. FOR THE WORLD

Sustainable education at Newcastle University

Newcastle University is committed to equipping our students to be socially responsible, future focused, globally and culturally aware individuals. Many programmes across the University already prompt our students to consider critically the global challenges that we face and reflect on how we can achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. This achieved through programme content, learning environments and approaches to teaching and assessment.