Sustainability, social and environmental responsibility, global citizenship and ‘preparing individuals to contribute to a just and sustainable future’ are at the heart of CCCU's Strategic Framework (2015-2022), its vision, its mission and its values.
Curriculum development and review
To support initiatives to incorporate sustainability perspectives into the curriculum across disciplines and courses, we have developed an Education for Sustainability development and review tool, based on QAA guidance. It asks you to review existing course and module documentation (prospectus, handbooks, and validation documents) to identify:
- Evidence of existing activity
- Opportunities for further curriculum enhancement
- Barriers to further progress.
Our team is happy to discuss ideas, to introduce the tool, and to offer resources to help you develop sustainability connections in your course or discipline.
Core curriculum modules
A suite of sustainability modules became part of the core curriculum for five undergraduate Education courses in 2021/22 , which has informed and inspired discussions going forward about how we can embed sustainability in the curriculum across other courses and faculties.
Curriculum collaborations
Getting sustainability into the curriculum is a key element of contextualising environmental and social sustainability issues in meaningful and practical ways that students can experience working with first hand.
We have worked with academic staff on a number of curriculum collaborations, some pilots, some on an annual cycle, and others that are still in development. Modules we’ve collaborated on include Psychology, Public Relations, Animation, Business, Events, and Professional Perspectives for Film students. You can find out more about some of these below.
Each year we provide briefs to second year PR and Media students on sustainability awareness issues that a PR campaign could meaningfully address. We provide the context, the problem that needs solving, and some things we have learned from previous attempts to highlight the issue.
The students then work together for the duration of the module on researching, designing, and drafting a pitch for a campaign to innovatively and appropriately address the briefs. They present these campaign pitches to members of the Academy for formative feedback and to their module leaders for summative assessment.
Each year, the Academy then invites one or more groups to take part in work experience alongside our own Student Green Office to put their campaigns into action with our funding and support.
Each year, students in the second year of our Events Management course work together, with Academy staff as consultants, on producing a sustainability-themed event on campus. These events vary in size and format, but usually involve engaging with small businesses, sustainable enterprises and local charities who are invited on campus to participate.
The Student Green Office and Academy staff along with the Students’ Union provide advice at inception and formative feedback to presentations delivered mid-way through the planning stage, as well as supporting the final on-campus event.
Albert was founded in 2011 and is governed by an industry consortium. It supports everyone working in film and TV to understand their opportunities to create positive environmental change. Albert partnerships aim to arm students with the knowledge of relevant sustainability issues they’ll face when joining the screen industries.
Albert is introduced to those in year 1, and Albert certification is now embedded within the year 3 Professional Perspectives module, which is core for all FRTV and Film Production students. They engage in discussions that focus on sustainability and environmental impact in relation to film and TV production, and set out ways in which the Albert checklist process can be part of student productions as a key element of their production experience. Finally, students make a short video or animated presentation to demonstrate how Albert has helped then, and are given the chance to respond to an industry brief provided by the Academy to create a short film or a commercial.