GLOBALISATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION - UCU

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esponsible citizenship’ should be recognised as a core business of learning institutions and a legitimatepurpose of lifetime learning (para 1.8)Key recommendation 2Funds should be made available to establish a national programme to support the further and highereducation sector’s response to the challenge of sustainable development. This programme should bemodelled on the highly successful Local Agenda 21 programmes run by local authorities (para 1.2)2. For Further and Higher Education (FHE) institutionsKey recommendation 3Within three years all FHE institutions should be either accredited to, or committed to becoming accreditedto, a nationally or internationally recognised environmental management standard, such as the ecomanagement and audit scheme (para 1.5)Key recommendation 4Within three years all FHE institutions should have developed the capacity to provide all students with theopportunity to develop defined levels of competence relating to responsible global citizenship (para 1.6)3. For Standard Setting BodiesKey recommendation 5Those responsible for defining national standards relating to industrial and professional practice, andassociated qualifications standards, such as industry lead bodies and professional bodies, should ensurethat appropriate reference is made to sustainable development issues (para 3.10)3.1 For Funding CouncilsKey recommendation 6Within three years all funding councils should introduce a mechanism for linking environmentalperformance to the allocation of funds, for example by introducing environmental criteria into existingquality assessment and inspection procedures (para 1.19.3)The policy processThe Toyne Review survey was mailed to 222 higher education institutions in autumn 1995, it wasresponded to by 65 higher education staff and achieved a 29% response rate. Of the institutionsresponding 39 had developed an institutional policy and strategy, 26 had conducted environmentalaudits/reviews, 21 had created co-ordinator posts, 15 had established an environmental budget and 10had identified a common learning agenda for sustainability for all students. The Review makes the pointthat any member of staff or student is capable of raising the idea of an institutional response and settingpolicy wheels in motion. Although a solitary upholder of environmental responsibility may seem like arather romantic notion, the reality may not be far from this. Higher education institutions are often sluggishto express a coherent commitment to any sort of policy or practice and most seem to be stirred to actionby committed groups or individuals, often articulating their concern through the AUT.Where universities do not have a comprehensive environmental or, preferably, internationally-focusedsustainable development policy, this can be pursued with local associations and/or through academic24 Globalisation and higher education
structures. ‘Sources and further information’ at the end of this section provides reading on such topics asuniversity–local authority partnerships, curriculum guidance, North-South perspectives on sustainabledevelopment and information on education for sustainability. Local Authority Eco-Management and Audit(LA-EMAS) and International Standards Office (ISO 14001) schemes provide models of good practice. ISO14001 enables universities to sign up to internationally recognised standards in environmentalmanagement and auditing.CASE STUDYThis university college has neither environmental or sustainable development policy nor any environmentalmanagement and audit system. Within the college there are academics who are either keen to implementor are already implementing elements of environmental education, development education and educationfor sustainability in courses. Such work has, however, been patchy, piecemeal and lacked properinvestment. Also within the college there is a new and exciting futuristic learning centre being establishedwhich is expected to demonstrate new educational directions. But, rather than being focused upon arange of teaching and learning futures, the staff charged with developing the centre have so far focusedalmost exclusively upon computer-related learning because this is what will attract funding. A number ofthe staff in the college believes that its education for sustainability and sustainable development profileshould be stronger and more coherent and that the college should become a centre of excellence in thisfield.A way to approach this problem would be for concerned staff to come together to press for an institutionalpolicy which covers ethical and environmental practice and endorses education for sustainability as botha cross-curricular theme and an area of study in its own right. Concerned staff could press their institutionto develop in conjunction with stakeholders, means by which ethical and environmental practice can beimproved, and how to encourage and conduct a focused programme of research and development ineducation for sustainability and its related fields.Globalisation and higher education 25
Page 2 and 3: Development Education Association29
Page 4 and 5: AUT prefaceDEA prefaceThis guidance
Page 8 and 9: 1 INTRODUCTIONHigher education is n
Page 10 and 11: higher education. The main themes i
Page 12 and 13: eflected within all aspects of high
Page 14 and 15: education institutions also gather
Page 16 and 17: Case studiesThe use of educational
Page 18 and 19: 3 HUMAN RIGHTSExpanding conceptions
Page 20: While acknowledging that there are
Page 23 and 24: 4 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTThe ‘mar
Page 25: Conservation Union, the UN Environm
Page 29 and 30: Bibliography and further reading1.

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