Sustainability Tool for Auditing Curricula in Higher Education (STAUNCH)

Project leaders: Professor Ken Peattie and Rodrigo Lozano

STAUNCH© (Sustainability Tool for Auditing for University Curricula in Higher-Education ) is an assessment tool which has been developed to allow higher education institutions to measure their contributions to teaching from a sustainable development perspective.

In many higher education institutions there has been strong progress in incorporating sustainability into research, buildings and operations; however, many are struggling to apply this to the curricula.

The STAUNCH© system was developed by Rodrigo Lozano at BRASS to help undertake a systematic audit of curricula across all Cardiff’s undergraduate teaching. As part of the auditing process it was found that there was no existing tool that could provide sufficiently robust and holistic information to complete the task, subsequently the STAUNCH tool was developed to fill this gap.

STAUNCH© evaluates course descriptions by grading them against 36 criteria divided into economic, environmental and social aspects as well as cross-cutting themes that link these, such as long-term thinking, humans as part of nature and sustainable development ethics and philosophy. The tool analyses the balance and strength of these themes and the contribution of both the university’s degrees and schools to the teaching of sustainable development. The results are shown in graphical and numerical formats, which enable comparisons to be made within an institution and between institutions, and highlight areas for improvement.

The tool was successfully piloted in 2007 and the system is now being made available commercially to other institutions, there has recently been an agreement amongst all of Wales’ HE institutions to use the system to conduct a curriculum SD audit required by the Assembly Government by the end of 2008.

For further information on how to purchase STAUNCH, please  Email: lozanor@cardiff.ac.uk
Or Tel: + 44 (0) 29 2087 6562