COMMITTING GRADUATES TO A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

For what purpose does a university exist if not to be relevant to the world’s major challenges and opportunities? Specifically, a university should help its students prepare to operate effectively, indeed with leadership, in addressing those challenges and opportunities.

To that end, in March 2017, CDU Academic Board approved a new set of Distinctive Graduate Qualities. These are valued qualities that should distinguish all CDU’s graduates, irrespective of their course of study, from their contemporaries at other educational institutions. To be introduced over time, they are designed to maintain and strengthen the position of CDU graduates as among the most desirable in the country (and, indeed, globally), as currently shown by the Australian Government’s Graduate Outcomes Survey.

These new Distinctive Graduate Qualities include that CDU graduates are: 1. adaptable in complex, dynamic and challenging environments; 2. committed to professionalism and ethical values; 3. appreciative and understanding of Indigenous Australians; and 4. committed to a sustainable world. 5. A fifth quality will be set by each individual student.

Each of these will require significant attention. This article will address just one: commitment to a sustainable world. The inclusion of sustainability sends two very clear messages. The first is that CDU recognises that sustainability (in its broadest sense), resource scarcity and resource quality are real local & global challenges – even if one wishes to contest the causes of these challenges. The second is that it is the responsibility of each and every person to strive, within the opportunities afforded by their own work and personal lives, for a sustainable world.

This is not an entirely new position for the University to take. The list of Graduate Attributes (now replaced by the Distinctive Graduate Qualities) set at the establishment of Charles Darwin University included, for higher education graduates only, the notion of ‘social responsibility’ skills, incorporating “a sense of… sustainability”, within the core attribute of Citizenship. This was prescient, given that the sustainability agenda has only increased in importance over time. Even if one does not follow the science, one can hardly avoid the politics – such as the debates surrounding President Trump’s recent announcement to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement (a great many other examples could be added here).

That said, limited progress has been made in embedding that Graduate Attribute into the student experience. A new approach is necessary that is more focused and yet also more inclusive of different approaches.

The task now is to embed the concept of sustainability throughout the many methods by which CDU students learn. In some cases, this will be by way of improvements to the curriculum. For example, CUC100, which most undergraduate students undertake, was redeveloped during 2015 and 2016 to include a content focus on sustainability. Many courses have specific units that focus on sustainability in the context of that discipline.

But not all learning needs to be formally assessed. Distinctive Graduate Qualities are also pursued through continual exposure to the factors that require one to critically reflect upon their validity and significance, and act accordingly. As such, there are clearly opportunities to engage with the broad theme of sustainability beyond the curriculum. Some of these extracurricular activities will be initiated by CDU staff; others will be at the initiative of CDU students. Indeed, this is already occurring, as with the CDU EnviroCollective and this Flycatcher Magazine.

The goal is that, over time, the sustainability agenda will be so widely and deeply embedded within CDU life as to ensure all graduates had the opportunity to develop an informed, deep and abiding commitment to a sustainable world.

Implementation of all the Distinctive Graduate Qualities is now a priority for the University. The full policy can be found at http://cdu.edu.au/governance/doclibrary/index.php. In the meantime, members of the CDU community with ideas about how sustainability can be embedded into the student learning experience are encouraged to contact DGQ@cdu.edu.au.

Professor Martin Carroll is Pro Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Services.