UCCCfS Programme 2014-2017

The Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland: Promoting Sustainability in Scotland's Universities and Colleges Programme was run by the EAUC Scotland Team from April 2014 to March 2017, primarily funded by the Scottish Funding Council with a significant income generation requirement.
 
Core to the Programme was the Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland (UCCCfS) Commitment, signed by all Scottish University and College Principals to commit their support to taking action on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Find out more about the UCCCfS Commitment here.
 
The Programme had 4 key Outcomes, which can be summarised as:
 

1. Action on climate change
2. Embedding sustainability in learning and teaching, and supporting careers in sustainability
3. Embedding sustainability in policy and strategy, and leadership development
4. Greater financial self-sufficiency for EAUC Scotland

More detail on these can be found in the Outcome Agreement with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which can be downloaded from this page.
 

Programme Activities

Over the Programme period the Team operated a number of distinct Projects to gather data on needs and progress or directly support the sector, many in collaboration with sector partners. These included:
 

• Leadership Framework Project - which has led to us focusing our 2017-2020 Programme on Catalysing Sustainability Leadership throughout FHE institutions
• Sustainability Careers Project - resources for students and careers advisors
• FE Energy Management Project - training and resource development
• College Education for Sustainable Development Project - supporting the agenda and resource development
• FE Sector Carbon Baseline Project - data collection and analysis
• HE Carbon Management Plan Project - data collection and analysis
• FHE Carbon Emissions Report 2014-15 Project (State of the Sector Report) - data collection and analysis

A high priority of the programme was supporting the transition to Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Reporting in line with the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, from the Annual Progress Reports previously submitted to the EAUC Scotland office using the UCCCfS Reporting Template.
 
Under the Programme:

• 22 Training Events were offered for educational contacts in Scottish Universities and Colleges, often in collaboration with other sector partners and external trainers.
• 39 Networking and Knowledge Sharing events were held as part of our Topic Support Network and Regional Network Programmes
• 997 people attended these events, with post-event surveys showing 91% believe EAUC Scotland are supporting the sector, and 89% believe our work develops their skills and knowledge.
• Two EAUC Scotland Conferences were held over the three years, welcoming around another 230 people between them. In November 2015 the Conference theme was A Shared Responsibility, and in February 2017 the focus was on making change happen. Find details and resources from these events through the respective links.
• 12 Forum Meetings over the three years, as well as Institutional Visits to most of the 46 further and higher education institutions in Scotland, allowed the Team the opportunity to meet with educational contacts, share information on the programme and upcoming projects, and hear directly from the sector about their training and support needs going forward.

 

Programme Evaluation

An external consultant was contracted at the end of this Programme to perform an Evaluation of the Programme against the four Outcomes within our Outcome Agreement with SFC. This was undertaken through a variety of methods, including a survey sent to all Scottish Educational Contacts, interviews with the EAUC Scotland Team, interviews with key partners (Sustainable Scotland Network, Learning for Sustainability Scotland, Zero Waste Scotland and Adaptation Scotland), interviews with representatives from two universities and two colleges to form the basis of four case studies, and a review of EAUC Scotland documents and reports.

A snapshot of these findings can be seen in the Summary Report image to the right (click to expand), with both the Summary Report and Full Report also available to download from this page.

 

Next Steps

The EAUC Scotland Team have incorporated key learning from the Evaluation, as well as feedback gathered through Forum Meetings and Surveys, into the design of their next programme. Particular focus areas identified are:
 

• Improving the quality of data collected for Public Bodies Climate Change Reporting
• Supporting contacts to cascade training within their organisation
• Opening discussions with accreditation bodies on incorporating more sustainability within university and college curricula
• Engaging more with and promoting research on sustainability within Scotland's FHE institutions
• Engaging with senior leaders through Outcome Agreement process
• Continuing to support and drive leadership from throughout institutions
• Communicating more about wider sustainability issues, not just carbon emissions, including around the Sustainable Development Goals
• Being proactive in seeking to deliver projects on behalf of or alongside sector partners
• Establishing an effective monitoring framework, including baselines and key performance indicators

  
You can read more about the 2017-2020 Catalysing Transformative Leadership for Sustainability Programme here.