Exercising UNESCO Competencies In Students Through Research-Based Education For Sustainable Development

Today’s complex global challenges call upon a different pedagogical approach to Higher Education (HE) that is fit for the purpose of preparing our students – to paraphrase the words of Sir Jonathan Porritt - not only for the world of work, but the work of the world. Indeed, we can and should be preparing students for both, as it is through their professional lives and activities that they will arguably be able to have the most positive impact on these global challenges. Consequently, re-focusing teaching on ways of thinking, being and practicing, the so-called ‘head, heart and hands’ framework, should be done in a way that actively stretches students beyond the comfort of their disciplinary boundaries, knowledge and skill sets. This paper will present the University of Strathclyde’s practice and experience of establishing their award winning Vertically Integrated Projects for Sustainable Development (VIP4SD) programme, as an exemplar of how to embed ResearchBased Education for Sustainable Development in undergraduate curricula. This paper will show how VIP4SD provides students with the time and space in their curriculum to develop demonstrable levels of domain expertise and exercise key UNESCO sustainability (and ergo employability) competences. We then discuss how we have sought to evidence this by supporting students to recognise and articulate their competency development, achieved through the experiential and transformational learning provided by the VIP4SD programme.