TU Dublin links sustainability learning to student success

At the Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) in Ireland, every programme of study has sustainability as a learning outcome.

“The approach we’ve taken is not to have one module on sustainability that everyone does because that doesn’t integrate with disciplinary learning,” Dr Brian Gormley, the university’s head of sustainability education, explained to University World News.

“But it’s embedded within every discipline. So, in my role and that of my team, we support academic staff to integrate sustainability into their discipline.”

Gormley has a background in environmental and sustainability roles, as well as student services which brought together aspects such as counselling, health, student finance, accommodation and societies. His expertise across these areas makes him ideally placed to lead on the TU Dublin sustainability agenda.

“I used to be involved in environmental societies so when I was in charge of student services it was easier to get students involved in projects like Green-Campus,” he said. “A lot of our societies have supported sustainability activities, social justice and inclusion, whether through groups like LBGTQ or the Society of St Vincent de Paul, which supports people in need.”



A strategic approach

Incorporating sustainability into every programme as a learning outcome is easier in some faculties and disciplines than others, so the university’s sustainability education team works with staff and faculties to help them embed this. To date, around 1,800 staff members have attended workshops on how to involve sustainability when curriculums are being revised.

“You might come across a colleague in a discipline such as maths who will say ‘I’m teaching calculus – where is the sustainability in that?’,” Gormley said. “But maths forms the very basis of the climate model and if that lecturer is using climate modelling in one of the assignments, then their students will be learning about sustainability and how their discipline can contribute to sustainability.

“We have the technology and the ability to solve a lot of the problems around sustainability. Communicating that message is the real difficulty.”

He believes that creative students – those enrolled in arts and the humanities – have the real power to disseminate clarity of understanding about the challenges ahead and to create the space where difficult conversations can take place.

“One of our campuses is based in an old mental health facility, which used to be known as the Richmond Lunatic Asylum, and has quite a dark history,” he explained. “Our final year drama students worked with a writer to create a play called The Asylum, using testimonies from the staff who worked there, and performed it for the local community.

“It was fabulous and spoke to a lot of the issues in a very constructive and sensitive way, creating a debate around our society’s treatment of mental health and of women, in particular, and the whole issue of incarceration in Ireland.”

Another project involved students at the school of media creating assets around the history of a culverted river that runs under the university campus. The students interviewed people in the community who remembered the previous flow of the river and studied its impact on local biodiversity, and the propensity to flooding.

The project involved input from the university’s school of environmental health, which was already monitoring water quality. Following their investigations, the media students carried out radio interviews and produced videos and images of their findings, as well as presenting an exhibition for the community.

“This is active, transformative learning when you’re engaging with the community and solving real-world problems in practice,” Gormley added.

“I like to see the university as a kind of living lab project, where everyone gets involved by identifying something in their field of interest or discipline that is an issue that needs to be resolved, which is then linked to their academic programme.

“Such an approach engages students in real-world challenges and it’s innovative because we’re a practice-based learning institution. It ties in well with the way we work here.”

In another project, architecture students designed and built reusable shelters for homeless people, calculating what impact its emissions might have on the climate – and all while, at the same time, learning more about the challenges of homelessness.

Student success through engagement

“An engaged student is a successful student,” Gormley added. “The projects give them an opportunity to work in teams and when they do so, there is a greater sense of belonging, which increases the chances that they are successful in their studies and continue to the end of the course.”

These assignments also remove any temptation for students to produce written assignments with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to do authentic assessment with the rise in AI. These practical projects, which involve collaborative work, turn their final presentations into a real, authentic assessment. It’s a win-win for their learning, for the local community, for the university and for the students who are more ready to go out into a work environment.”

Quality assurance

The inclusion of sustainability topics forms part of the quality assurance process at TU Dublin.

“When colleagues are going through their programmatic review, they must demonstrate how they’ve embedded sustainability in the curriculum. Our learning and teaching centre organises workshops on preparing for programme review and supports them in embedding sustainability.

“We are conscious that our staff are very busy and there’s a lot of change happening in the university, but generally people have embraced the sustainability agenda and can see the opportunities in terms of solving the real-world challenges that it can bring to their teaching and as a form of assessment,” said Gormley.

ESD and student access

A major focus of student access at TU Dublin is targeted on the high proportion of young people who are the first in their families to go into higher education, and who may need support with food, mental health and well-being, and free counselling.

Around 40% of the students at the university pay no fees for tuition or services other than personal living expenses and transport costs. Most students will live at home.

“For many of these students there would have been few, if any, opportunities for college in the past, and they come from backgrounds where there wouldn’t be a lot of money in the family,” Gormley explained.

To help them through their degree courses, the university runs a number of welfare and other projects to attract them in, and to ensure that they are more likely to complete their studies.

“We run a food bank called the ReFridge project which has won lots of awards and is run by student volunteers. Around 300 students a week use that on a regular basis.

“We are also strong on gender equality, and as a technology university, on STEM subjects, and we work hard to get more young women involved in these disciplines, particularly engineering. We have a project called Trailblazer and around 5,000 students have engaged with that project, accessing mentoring and leadership development.

“In addition, we reach out into local schools and bring secondary students in so that young women can see and meet female scientists as role models in fields such as pharmacy, optometry and engineering, and understand the opportunities available to them,” Gormley said.

He added that the university-led sustainability projects running in the community also draw people into the university and highlight the innovation taking place.

“We have five campuses, four of which are located in some of the most deprived areas of Dublin, so it’s a mutual boost to have a presence there and it strongly encourages young people to attend.”

New arrivals are encouraged to settle into university life with a series of orientation activities “that give students a sense of belonging” that are based around sustainability, including a climate change Escape Room and treasure hunt, and other interactive outdoor activities.

“Another of the orientation activities is Climate Fresk, which is a workshop where students learn about the science underpinning climate change and in which students work in teams to map out the impacts of climate change,” Gormley said.

Beyond 2030

As the world hurtles toward the expiration of the SDGs in 2030, TU Dublin is already looking ahead by engaging with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network about the future, as well as looking internationally, notably to the European Union, for further incentives and collaborations.

“We aren’t going to solve all of the world’s problems by 2030, but there is a possibility the SDGs will continue in another version,” Gormley added. “In Ireland – and in the EU – we have very strong laws around climate and biodiversity so there is also a legislative requirement pushing this.

“The Nature Restoration law coming from Europe is certainly very welcome and will see huge investment in biodiversity in the coming years.

“TU Dublin has an environmental management programme among its courses, whose graduates are being snapped up because of the demand for this expertise. So, the drive for sustainability will continue and it’s good for our graduates from all disciplines to have those skills and the knowledge, which will serve them well as they go out into the workplace,” said Gormley.