Zoe Robinson is a Professor of Sustainability in Higher Education and University Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at Keele University where she also held the role of University Director of Education for Sustainability for 10 years with responsibility for embedding sustainability across the curriculum and student experience. Zoe is a researcher, educator and practitioner in the field of sustainability science with a background in sustainability, climate change and energy transition education and community engagement. In recognition of her work in education for sustainability, Zoe was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2012, is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and was shortlisted in the ‘Most Innovative Teacher of the Year’ category of the Times Higher Education Award in 2019. Zoe has worked in an advisory capacity on education for sustainability for a number of national organisations. 

Response and responsibility: the role of universities, the curriculum and student partnership in a more sustainable future 

This session explores university responses to the urgent action needed to ensure a more sustainable future. Higher Education Institutions have long been recognised as a major contributor to society’s efforts to achieve sustainability, in part through the skills and knowledge that its graduates put into practice.   

‘Education for sustainability’ can take many forms, from the formal curriculum we teach, the co-curriculum in the opportunities we provide for students, and the ‘hidden curriculum’, in the learning that occurs from the environment in which we live, work and study. But how do we as educators navigate the tensions and synergies between the drive to ensure employable, high earning graduates, metrics driven league tables, and the responsibility to ensure our students - society’s future leaders - are equipped to become knowledgeable and engaged actors with the skills to educate and influence others, and the agency to enact change? 

Gareth is a psychotherapist, researcher and lecturer. Gareth led the development of Education for Mental Health, a toolkit hosted by Advance HE to support the development and delivery of curriculum that can support wellbeing and learning. He is also the lead author for the University Mental Health Charter and the clinical lead for Student Space, a site hosted by Student Minds to support student mental health during the pandemic. Gareth led the development of The Wellbeing Thesis, an online resource for PGR students, is a Principal Fellow of the HEA and is the author of Be Well, Learn Well, a book for university students published by Bloomsbury.

Session title: Student wellbeing and student learning

The session will explore the relationships between student wellbeing and student learning and how teaching and curriculum development can support both. The session will introduce the Education for Mental Health toolkit, which is hosted by Advance HE.  Drawing on evidence gathered for the development of the toolkit, it will explore how evidence informed, pedagogic practice can positively influence student learning and wellbeing through scaffolding, learner development, social integration and taking a learning focussed approach. It will also examine common barriers to wellbeing and learning, the role of the academic in supporting student wellbeing and the relationship between academics and student support services.

Elspeth Jones is Emerita Professor of the Internationalisation of Higher Education, Leeds Beckett University UK, and founding editor of the influential book series, Internationalization in Higher Education (Routledge).  She was awarded the inaugural North Star Medal of Lifetime Achievement in Transnational Research (Noam Chomsky Global Connections Awards) and is past recipient of the EAIE Award for Excellence in Research. She hosts a YouTube channel featuring conversations with international educators, and is past Chair of the EAIE’s Expert Community on Internationalisation at Home.

Elspeth’s particular interests revolve around the student experience, from strategic leadership to personal, professional and employability outcomes from international mobility, internationalisation of the curriculum at home and abroad, global citizenship and intercultural competence development, as well as the role of languages in internationalisation. She has worked with a range of organisations including UNESCO, European Commission, European Parliament, International Association of Universities, Nafsa, the International Education Association of Australia, and a range of universities, ministries and other organisations across six continents.

Connecting agendas: the transformational potential of internationalisation

 Internationalisation is a term widely used yet understood in many different ways. This presentation will seek to unravel and connect the various agendas encompassed by a broad interpretation of the concept, illustrating the local, national and global dimensions of its transformational potential for our students.

 It will be argued that internationalisation of the curriculum; internationalisation at home; global citizenship; education for sustainable development; decolonisation of curricula; social and cognitive justice; equality, equity, diversity and inclusion; are all initiatives closely linked to a sense of ‘globality’, or consciousness of the world as a single place (Robertson, 1992). It will invite participants to reflect on these connections in relation to their own students and curricula.

The continuum of inclusive education within the dominant structures of UK higher education

Dr Akile Ahmet is the head of Inclusive Education at the LSE, Eden Centre for Educational Enhancement and leads the LSEs Inclusive Education Action Plan.

Akile’s research background is in Human Geography and Sociology where she has developed innovative and underrepresented research projects on spaces of power and resistance in higher education, and social justice. She has worked on three key research projects in this field: ‘Progression and Diversity of Social Work Students across eight different UK Universities’ and ‘Race in the Academy’ and ‘Decolonisation: meaning and action’. Her most recent ´Who is worthy of these walls? Postgraduate students, UK universities, and institutional racism’ was among the most downloaded from the Area Wiley Online Library website in 2021. Akile has also written on the experiences of black and minority ethnic scholar on diversity policy.

The continuum of inclusive education within the dominant structures of UK higher education 

In this presentation I am asking us all who work in universities to seek to understand inclusive education within our own institutional settings and pay attention to the specifics of the university and our students as individuals. I argue that Inclusion and inclusive teaching should mark the beginning of dismantling dominant structures which have been embedded into higher education. Only once we have done this will we be able to begin our conversation on decolonising curricula and practice.