Partnership for the goals 2023

 

Our Strategy Map (2019-2025) commits to expansion in already extensive external engagement, including government SDG policy development. This is delivered in many areas. Examples include the work of the Global Disaster Resilience Centre (GDRC) with the Chinese government (Ministry of Emergency Planning) on International Experience in City Responses to Extreme Weather Events (#13). The Energy Integration Lab works on an end-to-end energy infrastructure addressing the sustainability agenda, with partnerships including those illustrated here in Uganda (#7).

 

Initiation and participation in cross-sectoral dialogue about the goals

Examples of the many workshops, conferences and other interactions with governments, NGOs, and others relevant to the SDGs include: the University's Global Disaster Resilience Centre ran an international symposium in Sri Lanka on risk communication, preparedness, and early response to combat epidemics, pandemics, and other hazards (#1, 2, 6, 13). The University's Centre for Sustainability, Responsibility, Governance and Ethics (SURGE) runs regular seminars on themes such as the circular economy, plastic waste and food issues.

 

International collaboration in gathering and measuring data related to the goals

Huddersfield colleagues are extensively involved in data gathering and measurement related to the goals, across a variety of impactful international collaborations. For example, Dr Thanos Angelis-Dimakis leads Huddersfield's contribution to the FRIETS project working across 5 countries and 13 partners, towards the sustainable optimization of the value chain of added-value fresh and dried berries (#9, 12). In work package 5, the University contributes to the identification of the most common fungal, mycotoxin and modified mycotoxin contaminants of berries. The GDRC’s annual report for 2021 lists a number of collaborations to gather data internationally, representing 8 research projects successfully completed, with 48 partners from 16 countries, with a total value of £3.7m – e.g. CRESCENDO, aimed at developing risk-sensitive urban planning and development processes, and local metrics with effective accountability mechanisms (#1, 2, 6, 13).

 

Work to review comparative approaches and develop international best practices on tackling the goals

Dr Thanos Angelis-Dimakis leads Huddersfield's contribution to AQUASpice - advancing sustainability of process industries through digital and circular water use innovations, which met in person for the first time in 2021 (#6, 9, 12).  Dr James Reid's work on 'Life Saving Lullabies' represents work on international best practice in how arts-based practices can support relational community engagement processes in lower and middle-income countries (#1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

 

Work with NGOs

The University's Global Disaster Resilience Centre is part of CORE - sCience & human factOr for Resilient sociEty, a project which aims to develop a harmonized vision of crisis management to help restructure and rebuild socio-economic structures after a disaster. Alongside the University, partners include organisations such as Public Safety Communication Europe Forum (PSCE), a permanent autonomous organisation aiming at improving provision of public safety services and the safety of the citizens during crisis (#13). The 'Life-saving Lullabies' project worked with St John Zambia to research & develop public health education resources in novel forms for African communities, and has won the Australia Design Award - discussed here in the 2021 International Stillbirth Alliance conference (SDG #3, 5, 17).

 

Education for the SDGs

The University has adopted a top-level strategic level commitment to ‘Enable all students to become inspiring and enterprising global professionals and achieve career and personal success’, and to ‘Create an inclusive globally aware community providing a world-leading and inspiring student experience’. This is manifest in the Global Professional Award (GPA), which is taken by all undergraduate students at the University. https://www.hud.ac.uk/undergraduate/global-professional-award/ The GPA has three areas of focus: employability and enterprise; wellbeing; and global citizenship skills. The award is accredited not only by the University of Huddersfield but by the Chartered Management Institute (level 5), aligned with their professional values, and as the course summary indicates for students, against ‘global citizenship skills’; ‘The modern, global world may seem a little daunting. The Award will give you new viewpoints to consider and perhaps challenge your current perceptions of the world and how you can have an impact in the future.’

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals are a key focus throughout the three years of the Award. In workshops, students are introduced to the concept and purpose of the SDGs from year 1. They research and analyse issues related to a number of the SDGs and are asked to work collaboratively to consider possible solutions on local and global scales. In years 2 and 3, the following SDGs underpin the curriculum: good health and well-being; gender equality; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; and climate action. Through synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods, students are regularly asked to consider these issues and their impacts, how they as individuals can contribute to positive solutions, and how they might make an impact in their areas of work, post-graduation. Students are also required to devote a number of hours to the GPA Electives, through which students undertake experiential learning opportunities (such as volunteering, work-integrated learning opportunities and placements) to apply their knowledge gained through the Award and to demonstrate their capacity to be truly global citizens

The GPA is a compulsory module embedded in the experience of all undergraduate students at the University – it is not an optional additional award of the sort provided by some institutions.

Postgraduate students in the Huddersfield Business School all follow curricula which have been designed around the SDGs. The Business School has a long history of engagement with sustainability research. In the late 1990s, it housed the Centre for Corporate Environmental Management which focussed on supporting businesses in addressing environmental concerns; this important group is now known as SURGE (Sustainability, Resilience, Governance and Ethics).  

More than 10 years ago, the Business School pioneered an MSc Risk, Disaster and Environmental Management positioning environmental responsibility and sustainability at the heart of business education.  In 2018, the entire PGT curriculum was redesigned and all modules were mapped against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Huddersfield Business School’s MBA directly connects contemporary thinking on systemic risk with leadership responsibilities in both private and public sector contexts and the module “Responsible Leadership & Systemic Risk Management” is the centrepiece of the curriculum. 

Engagement with ethics, responsibility and sustainability are core learning goals for all graduates; at Masters level: 

3.1 Evaluate principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility in the subject area and propose solutions

3.2 Formulate and enact values relating to ethics, sustainability and responsibility that inform professional practice

The School is now appointing staff and student sustainability champions, not only to embed sustainable thinking into our own practice, but also to inspire our students to be active advocates of sustainability in their future professional practice.