“Future-proof your Degree”

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of how a UK business school has explicitly linked sustainability to employability and embedded these into all levels of its undergraduate and postgraduate degree portfolio. Design/methodology/approach This case study features Nottingham Business School’s (NBS’s) journey of linking sustainability with employability to achieve the University’s strategic objectives and help deliver on the sustainable development goals (SDGs). After reviewing all courses, a cross-school approach was adopted in re-designing the curriculum, first at undergraduate and later postgraduate level. Partnerships, both internal and external were developed, involving the employability and enterprise teams, the University’s students and alumni, local employers, local authorities and businesses and charities. Feedback from graduates is included. Findings When NBS introduced new undergraduate modules in 2012, there was resistance with concerns over already crammed curricula and the perceived irrelevance of sustainability. This changed as students realised that an understanding of sustainability was benefiting them at interviews and adding value to their employers. While it cannot be proved that increased self-awareness and sustainability literacy have a direct effect on graduate prospects (as measured by the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey), NBS has seen the percentage of students in graduate level employment and/or study increase from 71 to 89.6 per cent over the past five years. Originality/value Linking sustainability to employability, and embedding these in the curriculum, should benefit any institution, its students, employers and society, and can be replicated anywhere in the world.

The HESFS for higher education funding, employment and sustainability

“…The increasing presence of competitors (Lopatta and Jaeschke, 2014) showcasing their sustainability reports through higher education sustainability initiatives such as the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS, 2020), The College Sustainability Report Card (Green report, 2020) and the UN Global Compact (UNGC, 2020) may cause a herding instinct (Sias, 2004) and a drive to implement systems like the HESFS. HEIs may also appreciate the operational efficiencies that can be generated, such as the staff’s increased motivation because of the meaningful assistance of SDWPP student employees, who may strive to excel in their sustainability skill set because of their potential recognition of the value it adds to employers (Winfield and Ndlovu, 2019). Lastly, HEIs may become aware of the short-term profit opportunities and be more motivated to integrate the concept and practice of sustainability (Vilalta et al , 2018; Shiel et al , 2020) for globalization and internationalization purposes (Sassen and Azizi, 2018); thereby gaining access to new funding streams and exploiting synergies forged through industry alliances that further their traditional domains.…”

“…The reason for this is that HEIs partake an active role in ensuring their graduates acquire academic and professional skills demanded by the market and therefore get jobs. Linking sustainability to employability to achieve the HEIs strategy to further SDGs (Winfield and Ndlovu, 2019) or encourage student-led campus greening initiatives (Hayles, 2019) has proven to be successful mainly because of the recognition of the mutual benefits on part of the students and HEIs. The more students with an SDWPP transcript and relevant achievements will be sought after in job postings, the greater the desire to participate in the SDWPP.…”

Interdisciplinarity in education for sustainable development: business schools perspectives

“…When it comes to business education, the approach of sustainability can be considered a way to future-proof the business degree (Winfield & Ndlovu, 2019), nevertheless a truly integrative sustainability education in HEI is challenging and find a plethora of barriers (Krizek, Newport, White & Townsend, 2012). Management and sustainability studies can be seen as Interdisciplinarity field areas since both represent efforts to bring together different knowledge to approach complex subjects.…”

“…Through the lens of PRME Schools, the Champions group is a purposeful sample (Sandelowski, 1995). they are expected to foster a critical and reflexive view of RME (Solitander et al, 2012) to educate new leaders in a "future proof curriculum" (Winfield & Ndlovu, 2019).…”

“…When it comes to business education, there is a growing convergence of the subject among researchers (Nwagwu, 2020;Winfield & Ndlovu, 2019;Borges et al, 2017;Painter-Morland, Sabet, Molthan-Hill, Goworek & de Leeuw,2016), linking the concept to the teaching of Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Sustainability (ECS) (Mousa, Massoud, Ayoubi & Abdelgaffar, 2020) or Responsible Management Education (RME) (UN PRME, 2016;.…”