Sustainability in the Curriculum
Education for Sustainable Development
Being an educational institution, we guide our students, and communities through teaching academically and professionally accredited courses at a higher education level. This provides the opportunity to integrate ideas, concepts and behaviours into the curriculum providing learning opportunities for students to become aware of and understand the development that needs to occur to be a sustainable member of society and the skills needed in the workplace and as a global citizen.
Our Graduate Attributes are a set of qualities and skills all students of the university can expect to gain during their time studying at the university. These span across all disciplines to enable students to not only learn about their subject area but having the knowledge and aptitude to apply learning.
Integrity is one of the 5 core attributes, reflecting the need to be responsible for your actions and behaviour and to also have the self-awareness to recognise the impact it has on others and the environment.
ESD is a key area of our Group Sustainability Strategy whereby we aim for our education and student experience, research, enterprise and innovation to support the drive towards sustainable and ‘clean’ socio-economic growth. Specifically, to –
“Evolve our teaching and learning approaches and curriculum to reflect societal and economic needs and expectations to deliver an inclusive and engaging learning experience that reflects cultural and global perspectives, and to ensure all our students gain the attributes and skills needed to support the development of a sustainable low carbon future”.
Being able to deliver upon this statement is the purpose of the ESD steering group which consists of the Deputy Vice Chancellor Curriculum, the CEO of the Students Union the Head of Sustainability, student representation as available, Academic Development Specialists and Acedemic staff, and people working on extra-curricular activities. Our active ESD Network is made up of teaching staff from around the group. The multi-functional groups are able to share case studies, wider learning on ESD and opportunities for training and events are shared.
We are also privileged to be able to use our campus as a ‘living lab’ for students to gain practical knowledge of sustainability. The Delia Derbyshire building was host to DontWasteBuildings for a tour and discussion event. Having achieved the RIBA West Midlands 2025 Building of the Year: University of Coventry’s College of Arts & Society, the Delia Derbyshire Building is an example of a project where two older buildings have been attached by a new modern building to form one building; presenting a case study to considered reuse of buildings versus building new. Staff, architecture students (and other students) and the wider community were able to participate in the event to learn about the benefits and pitfalls of such refurbishments.
Our decarbonisation work is also paving the way for students on the Renewable Energy Management MSc course to apply learning to a real-life case study, using our decarbonisation works as a living lab example, see the case study for information.
Responsible Futures
Coventry University has retained the Responsible Futures Kitemark since 2015 and was one of the pilot institutions trialling the kitemark. Responsible Futures recognises UK Universities who are working to embed issues around sustainability and social responsibility within curricula across all colleges.
We also collect data on student views of sustainability through the NUS (SOS) annual Sustainability Skills survey. NUS surveys which consistently show more than 60% of UK students want issues around sustainability to be included within their courses - in recognition of the importance of this in future career paths.
Read the 2023 NUS Survey results.
We are continuously evolving the information and support we can provide staff on ESD, understanding staff needs in key to this and recent focus groups and training workshops have helped to build a clearer idea of the support staff would welcome and they also serve to provide guidance and information on resources that are available. Our staff ‘Padlet’ survey took place in Spring 2025 and was promoted within our Academic Development communications, the survey asks staff a series of questions on their experience of ESD in their teaching, and what support they would find helpful, this was complimented by a discussion workshop to share practice. We have also run a ESD workshop with PGCAPP participants to consider ESD approaches for newly qualified teaching staff. Our Academic Development internal web pages contain an array of resources and complimentsthe training offered.
Education for Sustainability often requires inter-disciplinary, cross-cultural, futures-focussed learning experiences which we know students gain from and enjoy.
News and Case studies
- Coventry University wins Times Higher Education Award for game-changing electronic waste project
- Learning in the community - Fablab
- Coventry University-led project developing learning resources and spaces across the globe recognised at QS Reimagine Education Awards
- Coventry University Vice-Chancellor speaks at global climate summit COP28 in Dubai
- Coventry University students win Design Concrete 2023 competition with nature reserve creation that absorbs carbon dioxide
Read our latest Sustainable Development Report for more information on sustainability within the curriculum.
