The Eden Centre has funding available to employ both undergraduate and postgraduate students as research interns or assistants during the academic year 2022/23. 

This is intended to support LSE Academics’ commitment towards education for sustainability, but also to offer students different experiences such as insights into how to embed education for sustainability in the existing curriculum; support curriculum enhancement, participate in course design and research skills development.

Selected students will support staff by identifying sustainability related theoretical frameworks, concepts, readings and case studies for a specific course and/or alternative ways to embed sustainability in the curriculum. These internships will bring together staff who are interested but time-poor and interested students. Staff will discuss the course and their objectives for change with student researchers at the beginning of the project. The expected outcome could be an annotated bibliography providing suggestions for updating the reading list, might include proposals for the lectures and/or assignments so that they are focused on sustainability issues. The Education for Sustainability team will organise an event where students can present the work done and the results achieved in terms of integrating sustainability into the curriculum.

Academics are encouraged to apply by briefly outlining in the application form how they intend to redesign their modules in relation to education for sustainability and will be asked to provide a short plan on how they envisage working in collaboration with the selected student(s). They will also be asked to explain how student involvement will produce change in the curriculum and foster education for sustainability. 

Students are also encouraged to invite staff to apply and if they do, it will be possible to select the student leading the proposal to transform the curriculum for the internship programme.  

 Departments and academics can choose the most suitable model for them. For example:

• activities can take place within or outside term time. However, they need to be completed by the end of July 2023.
• projects can be undertaken by solo students, or more than one student can be involved.

Constraints: Funding can cover up to 10 internships of 25 hours each.

Background Information

Since 2019, the Eden Centre has enabled 49 LSE students across 12 departments to collaborate with staff to extend and expand research projects. The ambitious Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme was founded with the aim of integrating students into the scholarly research-rich environment of the School – a key ambition of LSE 2030 and the LSE Student Futures initiative.

Now the Education for Sustainability initiative aims to offer undergraduate and postgraduate students the opportunity to work alongside academics at LSE and engage with sustainability issues, developing a range of skills related to education for sustainability.

The LSE Education for Sustainability initiative reflects the LSE 2030 strategy, which promotes global impact education. Similarly, the LSE Strategic Plan for Sustainability clearly commits to integrating sustainability into LSE's teaching and learning experiences by 'strengthening and promoting existing courses and learning pathways that can provide students with a more comprehensive understanding of the environmental and social dimensions of sustainability, incorporating environmental sustainability into the LSE curriculum, and promoting interdisciplinary activities and solutions'.

Applications are not currently open, the most recent round having closed at the end of January 2023. We will update this page if funding is re-opened before the next academic year.

How to apply during a funding round

All projects will be considered, and selected applicants will be contacted within 10 working days of the respective deadline. 

With limited funds, we are likely to prioritise:

• Projects that clearly demonstrate how student involvement can produce change in the curriculum and promote education for sustainability. 
• Projects that provide a clear plan describing how the applicant intends to work in collaboration with the selected student. 
• Courses with no current sustainability content and departments lacking a sustainability-focused curriculum.

Academic staff will also need to be able to commit to:

• discuss with the student at the beginning and end of the project and be available for enquiries in the meantime; 
• drawing on the students’ work to make changes for 2023/24;
• report briefly on the process.

Once the projects have been selected by the Eden Centre’s Selection Panel, you will be responsible for selecting the student(s) and ensuring that the recruitment process is fair and transparent.

If your application is successful, you will be given a budget code to use when raising the contract (which will need to be edited to contain your department’s ‘Cost Centre’ code). Your department will be responsible for setting up a contract for the student(s), and submitting timesheets for them, although Eden Centre staff are happy to help with this.

The Eden Centre is pleased to discuss potential projects - please contact us via eden@lse.ac.uk.   

• Critical reflection Reflexive accounts, learning journals, discussion groups

• Systemic thinking and analysis Real-world case studies and critical incidents, project-based learning, stimulus activities, campus as a learning resource

• Participatory learning Group or peer learning, developing dialogue, experiential learning, action research/learning to act, and developing case studies with local community groups and business

• Collaborative learning Guest speakers, work-based learning, interdisciplinary/ multidisciplinary working

• Thinking creatively for future scenarios Using role play, real-world inquiry, futures visioning, problem-based learning

The HE sector has a unique role and responsibility in protecting the planet and delivering on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This requires research that makes progress against the SDGs and graduates with the core sustainability competencies required to address financial, environmental and social sustainability. However, 1.7% of Global World Product (GWP) is spent in Higher Education, so the sector also has to take approaches to their people, practices and places that are consistent with the goals. 

Advance HE in collaboration with Times Higher Consultancy have developed a range of products for institutions and governments to support the higher education sector to promote and utilise the SDGs to drive institutional change across research and culture, curricula and civic responsibility.

Find out more on their website.

SOS-UK is a student-led education charity focusing on sustainability that:

• delivers programmes and campaigns that enable students and society to act on sustainability;
• offers a range of learning opportunities and events to support sustainability action across the education sector and beyond;
• carries out specialist research into sustainability and social responsibility of the education sector in the UK and internationally;
• offers a range of services and packages to help drive sustainability through higher education institutions.

• AdvanceHE: Education for Sustainable Development Guidance  
• AdvanceHE: Practice Guides to support Education for Sustainable Development 
• Barth, M., Michelsen, G., Rieckmann, M., & Thomas, I. (2018) 'Routledge handbook of higher education for sustainable development' (First issued in paperback). Earthscan from Routledge. 
• Blake, J., Sterling, S. & Goodson, I. (2013) 'Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future: An Exploration of Pedagogies for Change at an Alternative College', Sustainability, 5, 1-x manuscripts, http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/12/5347
• Corcoran, P., Calder, W. & Clugston, R. (2002), Introduction: higher education for sustainable development. High Educ Policy 15, 99–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0952-8733(02)00009-0 
• Dumas, Marion (2019), The case for universal climate education in universities, LSE Blogs
• Education for Sustainability: A Guide for Educators on Teaching and Learning Approaches (University of Gloucestershire, 2011)
• Gamage, Kelum A. A., and & Gunawardhana, N. (2022) The Wiley Handbook of Sustainability in Higher Education Learning and Teaching. Wiley Handbooks in Education. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. 
• Illuminem - Energy & Sustainability focused news aggregator that curates that collect recent and comprehensive information about global Sustainability and Energy media headlines. 
• International Association of Universities (IAU): What is Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD)?
• Jones, P., Selby, D. & Sterling, S. (2010) Sustainability Education: Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education, Earthscan: London & Washington, DC
• NUS case studies – Embedding sustainability in UK HFE
• Pavlova, Margarita (2013) Towards using transformative education as a benchmark for clarifying differences and similarities between Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development, Environmental Education Research, 19:5, 656-672, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2012.736476
• Purcell, W.M. (2021), Higher Education And The Sustainable Development Goals
• Purcell, W.M. and Haddock-Fraser, J. (Co-Editors). (2021), Handbook on Sustainability In Higher Education: An Agenda For Transformational Change. 
• Purcell, W.M., Henriksen, H. and Spengler, J.D. (2019), "Universities as the engine of transformational sustainability toward delivering the sustainable development goals: “Living labs” for sustainability", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 20 No. 8, pp. 1343-1357. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2019-0103
• QAA Education for Sustainable Development guidance – Executive Summary (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, 2021).
• Santos, Gabbie (2021), Bringing academic research and the ‘real world’: LSE Public Research Partners for Civic Engagement, LSE Blogs
• Simone Strambach (2017) Combining Knowledge Bases in Transnational Sustainability Innovation: Microdynamics and Institutional Change, Economic Geography, 93:5, 500-526, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2017.1366268
• University of Plymouth: 7 Steps to Embedding sustainability in your teaching
• University of Plymouth: Sowing Seeds – How to make your modules a bit more sustainability related
• UN SDG Learn - UN-led initiative that provides useful and curated learning solutions on sustainable development topics. 
• Vann, J.; Pacheco, P.; Motloch, J. (2006) Cross-cultural education for sustainability: development of an introduction to sustainability course. Journal of Cleaner Production 14(9): 900-905. DOI:10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.01.002
• Winter, J. & Cotton, D. (2012) 'Making the hidden curriculum visible: sustainability literacy in higher education', Environmental Education Research, 18:6, pp. 783 – 796. DOI:10.1080/13504622.2012.670207
• Wyness, L. (2015) Education for Sustainable Development Pedagogy: Criticality, Creativity, and Collaboration, PedRIO Occasional Paper 8: University of Plymouth.