Business and Management Department

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the position of education for sustainable development in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector with respect to the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and Higher Education Academy (HEA) Guidance for education for sustainable development (ESD). Design/methodology/approach By means of a mixed-method approach underpinned by a concurrent triangulation design strategy, this research presents evidence from an online questionnaire survey and in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings Insights are presented from case studies of a group of UK Higher Education Institute (HEIs) which have made significant progress in embedding ESD in the curricula. Research limitations/implications Central to this study is an exploration of the ESD integration process of this group including a description of the approaches to integration, the challenges faced and overcome and the critical success factors. It examines the role of a guidance instrument in simplifying ...

There is growing recognition of the value of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for all learners, and of the unique role that universities play in the transformation of individuals, institutions and societies towards more sustainable futures. Universities engage and even lead in several areas: education, research and community engagement, all of which are essential in this transformation. Further, given their focus and influence, universities are pivotal to action needed to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but, to date, UK university integration of ESD and engagement with the SDGs is relatively limited. In recognition that a more urgent and meaningful response is needed to deliver the 2030 targeted socio-economic transformation outlined by the SDGs, the UK ESD Guidance has been comprehensively revised to support universities to deliver education which enables students to acquire sustainability competencies, equipping them to play leadership roles in an in...

THE BRISTOL METHOD The Bristol Method is a knowledge-transfer programme aimed at helping people in other cities understand and apply the lessons that Bristol has learned in becoming a more sustainable city, not just in 2015 but in the last decade. Each module of the Bristol Method is presented as an easy-to-digest ‘how to’ guide on a particular topic, which use Bristol’s experiences as a case study. The modules contain generic advice and recommendations that each reader can tailor to their own circumstances. This module focusses on the Green Capital: Student Capital project, and explains how the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) and the University of Bristol – with their respective students’ unions – have been working in partnership with the city and local communities, using Higher Education Funding Council for England Catalyst funding to promote student involvement in Green Capital activities across Greater Bristol. Student Capital created a broad programme of citywi...

The document provides a month-by-month summary of activities which were undertaken by UWE staff and students in support of Bristol's year as European Green Capital. More detail on these activities can be found in the UWE Green Capital Activities Catalogue and accompanying Portfolio.

This chapter addresses five objectives related to nature-based tourism in the Wet Tropics rainforests of Australia. It aims to: 1 determine the socio-demographic characteristics of visitors to a rainforest site; 2 examine visitor motivations for visiting the site and explore any relationships with socio-demographics; 3 examine visitor expectations of the rainforest; 4 explore visitor satisfaction with the rainforest encounter and examine its relationship with socio-demographics and provision of interpretive information; 5 explain what these results mean for tourism managers.

Credit rating agencies play a key role in financial markets, as they help to reduce asymmetric information among market participants via credit ratings. The credit ratings determined by the credit rating agencies reflect the opinion of whether a country can fulfil the liability or its credit reliability at a particular time. Therefore, credit ratings are a very valuable tool, especially for investors. In addition, the issue that credit rating agencies are generally criticised is that they are unsuccessful in times of financial crisis. Credit rating methodologies of credit rating agencies have been subject to intense criticism, especially after the 2007/08 Global Financial Crisis. Some of the criticised issues are that credit rating agencies' methodologies are not transparent; they are unable to make ratings on time, and they make incorrect ratings. In order to create a more reliable credit rating methodology, the credit rating industry and the ratings determined by rating agencies need to be critically examined and further investigated in this area. For this reason, in this study credit rating model has been developed for countries. Supervisory and regulatory variables, political indicators and macroeconomic factors were used as independent variables for the sovereign credit rating model. As a result of the study, the new sovereign credit rating calculates exactly the same credit rating with Fitch Rating Agency for developed countries, but there are 1 or 2 points differences for developing countries. In order to better understand the reason for these differences, credit rating agencies need to make their methodologies more transparent and disclose them to the public.