One of the major barriers to incorporating sustainability in the HE curriculum is its absence from the university sustainability strategy, the annual reflection of which is the annual sustainability report. While strategies specify targets, reports record what has already been achieved. In that respect, reports function as internally created reviews of universities’ sustainability activity. Various reviews of sustainability teaching activity have taken place in the UK HE sector. The current study attempts to explore formal sustainability teaching provision exclusively through HEIs’ annual sustainability reports. The sample consists of the most recent, whole-institution sustainability reports issued by UK HEIs from 2016 to 2018. An exploratory content analysis identifies sustainability curriculum coverage patterns, using a coding frame based on the STARS framework. Findings suggest that of the 167 UK HEIs 4% report on their sustainability curriculum provision comprehensively. The findings might be of interest to sustainability professionals in the reporting or the curriculum provision end. The study hopes to encourage wider coverage of sustainability curriculum provision in HE sustainability reports.
Kosta, Katerina
Oxford Brookes Business School\Oxford Brookes Business School\Department of Business and Management
Year of publication: 2017Date of RADAR deposit: 2019-01-16