Sustainability and employability: alliances at the University of Bedfordshire

Reviews from across the globe note that following the UNESCO-decade of Education for Sustainable Development, advances have been limited within higher education. Emergent research seeking to understand and overcome prevailing barriers, includes attention to the constraints within institutions related to crowded curricula and competing higher education agendas. Since ‘graduate employability’ is a key policy concern of many universities in the UK, understanding how it links to, or impacts on, the promotion of education for sustainability is crucial. This paper offers insights from experiences developing at the University of Bedfordshire which has a ‘widening participation’ mission to provide for students from families which are under-represented in higher education. In these circumstances, the relative priority which university managers, academics and students assign to the delivery of commitments to education for sustainability and to enhanced graduate employability are thrown into relief. Conducting preliminary stakeholder analysis of the policies, meetings, workshops and group discussions, we examine the different perspectives and approaches of managers, academics and students regarding education for sustainability and its connections with employability; comparing the scenarios in 2013 and 2014 which represent pre- and post-coordination of efforts. Our findings document the institutional drivers, and the initiatives that these distinct stakeholder groups adopt, which effect shifts that now more closely link education for sustainability to the employability agenda. Key factors were support for academic-led proposals, student participation in co-learning activities and inter-stakeholder collaborations. This preliminary study contributes to sector wide discussions about approaches to the implementation of education for sustainability.