Engineers 2030: UCL CEE report finds disparity in how sustainability is taught in engineering HE

‘Review of the teaching of sustainability in UK engineering higher education’ assesses how current engineering students are being equipped to tackle the Climate Emergency. The report, published yesterday, shares key findings about how and to what extent sustainability is taught in the UK higher education engineering system.

This is one of a series of reports published by the Royal Academy of Engineering on behalf of the National Engineering Policy Centre for its pan-engineering policy project,  Engineers 2030. Engineers 2030 seeks to define, and guide how to impart, the skillsets engineers need to confront the challenges society faces in the decades to come.

Comparing international and UK education accreditation bodies, universities and their faculties, departments and programmes, the report highlights variation in how sustainability is incorporated into teaching – including within degrees accredited by the same body. A range of integrated and nonintegrated approaches to teaching sustainability were found.

The report suggests that although significant progress has been made (case studies of good practice are included), considered embedding of sustainability in the curriculum through accreditation bodies would have a substantial impact, not only on future engineers’ abilities to develop sustainable solutions in their professional practice, but on attracting socially conscious engineers from the beginning.

Read the report

Engineers 2030

Professor John Mitchell of the UCL Centre for Engineering Education was part of the panel discussion at the event Engineers 2030: Rethinking engineering and technology skills for the 21st century, on 18^th March. The event recording will be posted on the RAENG website.