This blog describes research involving the University\u2019s Hospitality and Accommodation Services and Birmingham researchers from the EPSRC-funded iBUILD project, into a process aimed at satisfying students desire to live sustainably on campus, while at the same time capturing as wide a range of value for all stakeholders as possible.<\/p>\n
Looking back through The Big Conversation\u2019s most recent blogs, it is interesting to see the wide range of perspectives that authors have adopted.\u00a0 One thing that comes through clearly in many of the blogs, however, is the need to listen to students and build their needs into an approach to education that delivers both for them and for the University.\u00a0 This is something that Birmingham University\u2019s Hospitality and Accommodation Services (HAS) has been working on over the past year or so with regard to sustainability.<\/p>\n
HAS looks after student accommodation, among other things.\u00a0 Naturally, HAS surveys students who stay with them, to find how accommodation services can be developed to meet emerging aspirations.\u00a0 Feedback in 2015 indicated the need for closer attention to sustainability aspects of campus life.\u00a0 HAS responded with the \u2018Green Community\u2019 initiative, which was launched in autumn 2016.\u00a0 The Green Community is currently based on the Centre Court hall of residence; it offers a unique living arrangement for those undergraduates who have the desire to learn about sustainability and the enthusiasm to live in a way that supports the environment.\u00a0 Students who choose the Green Community are given the opportunity to develop their own ideas for initiatives and activities that promote a sustainable lifestyle.<\/p>\n
The Green Community has been a great success from the word go; however, as currently configured, its reach is quite narrow.\u00a0 HAS now wants to roll the initiative out more widely across campus, but this will need greater clarity about what new value will be captured.\u00a0 A systems-thinking approach is required: one that identifies the interfaces the Green Community has, or could have, with the University\u2019s operations as a whole, and explores the extent to which each interface offers an opportunity for value capture.\u00a0 Researchers on the iBUILD project have been applying systems-thinking to explore development of alternative business models for local infrastructure.\u00a0 They are now working with HAS to apply the approach to development of the Green Community initiative<\/p>\n
Early results from the research indicate a plexus of issues with the potential to generate value.\u00a0 Examples include opportunities to feature sustainability more strongly in taught courses; and opportunities to build the campus curriculum, linking taught courses with initiatives the University is pursuing on issues such as transport, catering and waste management, in the delivery of its environmental policy.\u00a0 A series of focus groups are due to take place over the next few weeks, involving students, academics, University facilities managers and the University\u2019s suppliers, to explore these links in more detail and identify the value attached to each.\u00a0 Further work will be required to create the Green Community \u2018business models\u2019 that will spell out how value is actually to be captured.<\/p>\n
The process is not just for the Green Community; it could be usefully applied more widely on campus to maximise value capture through the integration of formal, informal and campus curricula with student aspirations and implementation of the University\u2019s environmental policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This blog describes research involving the University\u2019s Hospitality and Accommodation Services and Birmingham researchers from the EPSRC-funded iBUILD project, into a process aimed at satisfying students desire to live sustainably on campus, while at the same time capturing as wide a range of value for all stakeholders as possible. Looking back through The Big Conversation\u2019s … Continue reading “A systems-thinking approach to developing education at University of Birmingham. By Chris Bouch and Matt Beveridge”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,82],"tags":[47,83],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students","category-sustainability","tag-students","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}