Green Gown Awards 2016 – Learning and Skills – Canterbury Christ Church University – Finalist

The Futures Initiative: Building capacity for long term curriculum change

Our mission is to enhance academic staff, knowledge, skills and experience in sustainability education to breed leadership in curriculum change!

After 5 years and 90 projects, involving hundreds of staff, students and volunteers, the tide is beginning to turn! The Futures Initiative (FI) is underpinned by a conviction that critical and creative engagement with sustainability is an essential component of a balanced university education, and that a forward-looking curriculum will be imbued with a spirit of optimism and pragmatism.

The FI has had a significant influence on institutional strategy, such that sustainability education is now embedded at the highest level and institutional responses are now being driven throughout the business infrastructure.

Top 3 learnings

1 Curriculum change comes from those that build and deliver it

2 There’s no quick fix: individual transformation requires experience

3 Build your narrative around a positive future.