Unit information: Sustainable Development in 2023/24

Unit name	Sustainable Development
Unit code	UNIV10001
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Michalopoulou
Open unit status	Open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	School of Geographical Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Unit Information

A trailer is available for this unit here and social media shorts here

This unit will provide an interdisciplinary introduction to the concepts behind the challenges of Sustainable Development. It will draw on content from a diverse range of academics at UoB, showing how interdisciplinary research and practice can help (i) understand the challenges and controversies of sustainable development; (ii) understand the approaches used to explore potential ways forward.

In it, students will gain an overview of the history and philosophy behind the idea of Sustainable Development, the particular challenges that are captured in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and critical perspectives on these. They will gain a more in-depth understanding of key challenge areas within Sustainable Development. Previous examples of these include the challenges of (a) Access to Fresh Water (b) Climate Change and decarbonisation of Energy Supply (c) Meat consumption and (d) deforestation. These may change from year to year.

These challenges will in turn be used as examples to show how different disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches can be used to provide insight and ways forward. These approaches will be presented under five broad headings: Science; Economics and Legal Institutions; Politics and Justice; Individual and Organisational Behaviour Change; Engineering and Innovation.

This unit takes a blended learning approach and students are required to engage with online content before attending weekly workshops. This content will be delivered via the Blackboard Online Learning Environment. These will cover the different interdisciplinary approaches and will involve reading documents and viewing videos of mini-lectures and case studies.

The unit will include a number of workshops which will encourage students to apply the insights from the online materials to specific case studies and critically discuss how contemporary sustainability challenges intersect with and influence our day-to-day lives.

The unit aims are:

• to develop a broad understanding of the challenges of sustainable development, and how different disciplines can provide insight as to how they may be addressed.
• to invite comparisons and contrasts of experience across a number of different sustainable development challenges.
• to help students appreciate the problems, tensions and controversies in the application of sustainable development ideals in practical circumstances
• to introduce students to the experience of inter-disciplinary working focused on a specific challenge

Your learning on this unit

By the end of the unit, students will:

1. Be able to understand and define the key principles behind Sustainable Development, and relate these to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
2. Be able to recognise ideas and concepts from their own discipline, along with those from others, in relation to different sustainability challenges, and critically reflect on their interplay.
3. Be able to analyse and critically discuss how contemporary sustainability challenges intersect with and influence our day-to-day lives.
4. Be able to work in an interdisciplinary team to analyse and critically evaluate challenges and potential ways forward in response to a specific sustainable development case study, and present their findings.

How you will learn

The unit will be taught through a blended combination of online and, if possible, in-person teaching, including

• online resources
• synchronous group workshops, seminars, tutorials and/or office hours
• asynchronous individual activities and guided reading for students to work through at their own pace
• practical work; students who either begin or continue their studies in an online mode may be required to complete practical work, or alternative activities, in person, either during the academic year 2020/21 or subsequently, in order to meet the intended learning outcomes for the unit, prepare them for subsequent units or to satisfy accreditation requirements.

How you will be assessed

50%: maximum 2000-word structured individual report discussing insights from the course, supported with a portfolio produced from participation in online activities and, when and where possible, face to face workshops. [ILOs 1,2,3].

50%: Group-work report (maximum 5000 words per group, group size normally 4-5 students) on a specific Sustainable Development challenge. Marks will be awarded individually and may be subject to adjustment due to peer review and staff assessment [ILO 4]

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. UNIV10001).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.