Influencing and Engaging Students
Rachel Drayson
Senior Research Officer- Environment and Ethics
Charlotte Taylor
Communities Project Officer
NUS
Hannah Khan
VP Societies and Communication
UWE SU
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Understanding your students and what they want
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What is already out there?
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Some engagement theory
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Theory in to practise
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Feedback
From energy saving to food growing…
Working within and across
institutions…
Students’ Green Fund
£5m pilot fund from HEFCE for student-led
sustainability projects to be run by students’
unions in partnership with their parent institutions
Four key themes:
• Student engagement
• Partnership
• Impact
• Legacy
Objectives
1. Initiate a step change in student engagement in
sustainability issues
2. Enable students to become meaningful agents for
change on sustainability issues in higher education
3. Ensure sustainability remains an institutional
priority within the sector
4. Put English higher education on the map for its
sustainability efforts
Open call to encourage innovation!
Education for Sustainability
Development
ESD is one of the enabling themes of the fund.
The 25 Students’ Green Fund pilot projects have ESD
woven through them, giving some excellent case
studies of students’ unions leading on ESD in higher
education.
Case Studies
Liverpool Guild of Students
Developing an institution-wide team of
Green Course Ambassadors supporting
the embedding of ESD into the
curriculum.
Wigan and Leigh College Students’ Union
Running a dragon’s den style competition for
innovative ESD projects. Staff from subject
areas will be encouraged to submit bids in
partnership with students, to develop and
embed a sustainability project within their
curriculum area.
What is already being done?
Students’ Unions
• Awareness raising
• Academic and Education Officers becoming more engaged
• Sustainability starting to be embedded
• Attendance at ESD events growing
UWE Students’ Union
Describe your students in 5 words…
Over to you…
What do your students want?
What do you want? (make it SMART- specific,
measurable, achievable, time-specific)
What do your universities want?
Barriers
• Cultural
• It’s not our responsibility
• Someone else is already doing this
DEFRA’s 4E’s
Encourage
Enable
Change
Exemplify
Engage
Breaking down the problem
Problem Tree
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•
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Identify the problems
Find the roots of problems
Identify solutions to problems
Create a step of next steps for engaging with
your students
Problem tree
Consequences
Problem
Roots
Solution tree
Effects
Vision
Solutions
Challenge!
• 4E’s: Encourage, enable, exemplify, engage
• How will you communicate with your students?
Consequences
Effects
Problem
Vision
Roots
Solutions
Questions?
Rachel Drayson
Rachel.drayson@nus.org.uk
07887417104
Charlotte Taylor
Charlotte.taylor@nus.org.uk
07817010044
www.nus.org.uk/greener