Partnership for the goals

Our Strategy Map (2019-2025) commits to expansion in already extensive external engagement, including government SDG policy development. This is delivered in many areas. Policy impact appears in work on gender-based violence in the None-in-3 project, e.g. in its Advocacy Partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat.(#3, 5, 10, 16). Through Dr Andy Mycock, the University provided input to the House of Lords, Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 Select Committee, submitting evidence on electoral registration of young people based on the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Lowering the Voting Age in the UK’ project (2018-2020) – published 15 May 2020 (#16). Prof. Paul Thomas provided advice to the UK government on early reporting of terrorist threats directly influenced counter-terrorism policing strategy in 2020 (#16).

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: members of the None in Three group participated in the 2020 International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect Conference. (# 3, 5, 10 16) Historian Dr Lindsey Dodd participated in the UNESCO Conference on Memory Justice, Peace and Reconciliation in 2020 (#16). The University's Global Disaster Resilience Centre was one o the lead organisations behind the international symposium on Multi Hazard Early Warning and Disaster Risk Reduction 2020, held on 14-16 December 2020 at the BMICH, Colombo, which witnessed the participation of thirty two national, regional and international agencies responsible for tackling disaster risk in Sri Lanka.

 

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, climate scientist Dr Phil Hwang works on the NERC MIZ project to improve understanding of marginal ice zone physics in climate models (#13, 14). Dr Hwang is also active in the University's projects in Ethiopia, using drone technology to gather data on forestation (#13, 15). Working on a project on Sustainable and Creative Villages in China, the Huddersfield lead Prof. Adrian Pitts and his team worked with Network members to produce guidance in the form of tabulated data to help inform design decision making (# 1, 6, 11).

 

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

Prof Simon Iwnicki and his colleagues in the Institute of Railway Research are world leaders in a range of technologies associated with rail transportation. Work with collaborators on trams and light rail is illustrated here (#8, 11). Dr Thanos Angelis-Dimakis leads Huddersfield's contribution to AQUASpice - advancing sustainability of process industries through digital and circular water use innovations (#6, 9, 12). Work with collaborators on trams and light rail is illustrated here. Profs Dilanthi Amaratunga & Richard Haigh of the Global Disaster Resilience Centre worked with partners in Sri Lanka on a programme on the development of societal resilience to disasters, illustrated here. Led by Huddersfield, the project includes other academic partners and Asian Disaster Preparedness

Centre (ADPC), IOC/UNESCO and the Federation of the Local Governments Association in Sri Lanka (#1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13)

 

Work with NGOs

The None in 3 Research Centre produces educational resources which have been widely shared, for example films exhibited in the American Public Health Association Film Festival (Oct 2020) (#3, 5, 10, 16). The 'Life-saving Lullabies' project worked with St John Zambia to develop public health messaging in novel forms for African communities, and has won the Australia Design Award (SDG #3, 5, 17). Prof Helen Lomax is leading on Huddersfield's contribution to the project 'Resilient Pollinators: Modelling Landscapes for Resilient Pollination Services in the UK', with her work package deploying innovative social science techniques to examine how changes in the landscape that affect pollinators will impact upon different people's cultural values for those landscapes (#15).

 

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). https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/surge/

More than 10 years ago, the 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. https://courses.hud.ac.uk/full-time/postgraduate/master-of-business-administration-mba

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.