Education for Sustainable Development Curriculum Audit (E4SD Audit): A Curriculum Diagnostic Tool for Quantifying Requirements to Embed SD into Higher Education - Demonstrated through a Focus on Engineering Education

Abstract

There is an emerging global consensus across a range of professions that significant change is required in preparing graduates to play a role in facilitating the societal transition to sustainable development in the coming decades. However, a literature review on curriculum renewal and embedding sustainability within higher education curriculum shows that this process is actually quite fragmented, sporadic and ad hoc. Indeed, there is a lack of strategic guidance on how an education program might make a transition to education for sustainable development, or with regard to the timeframe within which a transition might be possible. A strategic and systematic audit process has been introduced called the Education for Sustainable Development Curriculum Audit (E4SD Audit), developed by The Natural Edge Project to address these issues, and is a curriculum diagnostic tool that quantifies the requirements for embedding sustainable development into higher education. The audit context is identified within the need for rapid curriculum change in engineering education, but it is widely applicable. An overview of the E4SD Audit process is provided with a short example of how it might proceed. Comments are given on considerations for facilitating the audit and supporting the implementation of recommendations.