4. Graduates for a sustainable future

PRIORITY AREA

A student sitting outside at the University of Melbourne. He is wearing a baseball cap and smiling

Aspiration to 2030

All our graduates are shaping a more sustainable society through their careers and in their communities.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality education

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate action

All United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Progress against targets

Sustainability is integrated into curriculum to an extent that conscientiously extends, beyond a base threshold, each discipline’s (and associated professions/industries’) knowledge of the helpful and harmful impacts it has for the environmental and human systems we depend on

Sustainability-focused learning has increased across our faculties, with four new courses and subjects launched in 2022
Sustainability-focused staff appointments also increased, including Associate Deans, Sustainability in Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Graduates have increased capabilities to shape, lead and succeed in the careers, communities and industries of sustainable societies (year-on-year)

Faculties are mapping sustainability in the curriculum, launching and developing new sustainability-focused subjects and programs
Sustainability has been identified as a touchstone in the new Advancing Students and Education Strategy

Four students sitting and talking to each other on a bench outside Arts West building on the Parkville campus.

Across the University, academics and teaching staff are actively exploring how best to embed sustainability in the curriculum based on the knowledge and practices of each discipline, for example:
• Melbourne Law School has a strong and extensive program of sustainability-related subjects taught across breadth, Juris Doctor and Masters programs, particularly in the areas of law and development, law and the city, environmental law, and law and human rights. Melbourne Law School offered five sustainability-focused subjects in the Juris Doctor and 11 in the Master of Environmental Law program. Within the Sustainability Business Clinic, students provided legal research support to the Coalition for Community Energy.
• Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning mapped sustainability across their curriculum based on criteria from the Green Building Council of Australia, and commenced the process of significantly reorienting the Master of Architecture studio program around sustainability in response to new accreditation criteria.
• Melbourne Graduate School of Education embedded sustainability throughout its Master of Teaching and found that all students had some level of exposure to sustainability in their course content.
• Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology mapped course content from 1254 subjects across six schools in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a project led by Professor Abbas Rajabifard Subjects from the schools of Electrical, Mechanical and Infrastructure Engineering, Computing and Information Systems, and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering were analysed, along with selected subjects in the Melbourne School of Design, Melbourne Law School, and the Faculty of Science. The project revealed a strong presence of sustainability content across many subjects offered in these schools.
• Faculty of Science’s Office for Environmental Programs mapped over 200 sustainability-related postgraduate subjects from across the University to form a flexible and holistic Master of Environment program. Over its 24 year history, the OEP’s 1964 alumni have gone on to lead impactful sustainability careers in Australia and internationally, including 87 new graduates in 2022.
• Several new subjects and courses with sustainability as a focus or strong component launched in 2022, including: ‘Today’s Science, Tomorrow’s World’, a Discovery subject for all first year Bachelor of Science students. Other sustainability and climate-focused subjects offered by the faculty include Introduction to Climate Change, Food for a Healthy Planet, and Sustainability: Hope for the Earth?
• Sustainable Commerce subject for all first-year students in the Bachelor of Commerce
• Graduate Certificate in Climate Change and Health in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, with the first cohort of students commencing in 2023
• First-year Discovery subject in the Faculty of Arts which encourages students to consider the real-world impact of their collaborative research projects

A gravel path leading to a lawn with gum trees

University of Melbourne alum Ariadne Gorring

Ariadne Gorring: GCert Education 2019; M Social Change Leadership 2022

University alum leading social change for sustainability

Ariadne Gorring is co-CEO of Pollination Foundation, the not-for-profit arm of Pollination that supports community to design and deliver nature and climate solutions.

The University of Melbourne alum graduated from the Atlantic Fellowship Program in 2018. Through the program, Ariadne completed studies in social change leadership in her foundational year before joining a community of change-makers from across the globe.

Ariadne is now focused on co-designing initiatives through Pollination Foundation to strengthen the capability of Indigenous Peoples and local community organisations to access and participate in environmental market enterprises.

Learn more about Ariadne’s experience as an Atlantic Fellow.