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This year鈥檚 projects focused on peace education with a focus on inner and outer peace to promote acceptance and cultural empathy; and a campaign to promote awareness of our sustainability credentials, as evident from our consistently high position in the national People and Planet League. Seven students were involved (from Social Care, Criminology and Creative Industry courses) who had been mentored by three volunteer academics (Dr Joana Almeida, Assoc Prof Helen Connolly and Noel Douglas). Vicky Morris successfully coordinated the initiative this year, able to draw on the experience she gained from last year鈥檚 cohort where she mentored two projects.

Our students who took part were, Donna Matthews, Catalina Ciubotaru, Nicoleta Purice, Shafiqah Masoud, Daniella Robinson, Theophila Remy, Stefan Jieanu, and Shaima Gul-Shafi.

The projects were an extra-curricular activity, offered as the Student Sustainability Leadership scheme. This was introduced by Dr Diana Pritchard, Head of Educational Development and Evaluation and Institutional Lead for Education for Sustainability. They involve undergraduates from different disciplines working in partnership with academics on projects they co-create to address curriculum, campus and student experience challenges.

Preparations of the projects involved initial research. Two criminology students, Daniella Robinson and Theophilia Remy (both on the right in the picture above and pictured with the President of Bosnia) proposed a focus on the experience of the European Srebrenica genocide to address Islamophobia and genocide denial through peace education. This involved them - via their mentor Helen Connolly -volunteering with other students at Oxford at a high-level Presidential Address on the 30th Anniversary of the Dayton Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia. There they met with the President of Bosnia who had delivered the address, and other key figures, such as Dr Waqar Azmi, CEO of Remembering Srebrenica UK, who holds an Honorary Doctorate at the 91黑料网 for his work on Bosnia, Islamophobia and EDI. They are currently developing a podcast with key experts on the Srebrenica genocide to integrate into the curriculum at Bedfordshire and other HE institutions, and are exploring further opportunities for study and employment in this area.

Vicky Morris also attended the conference in Cardiff. She observed that 鈥渢his grand finale motivates the students from the outset and gives them an enriching experience of presenting to an unfamiliar audience, meeting students from other universities and discuss all the projects.鈥� Evaluations from last year鈥檚 projects evidence how student involvement developed their employability by enhancing their presentation, project management and teamwork skills and boosting their confidence. For two students, it also resulted in their co-authorship of an .

Dr Pritchard explains the scheme鈥檚 significance: 鈥淏efore increasing global disruptions and uncertainties, it is necessary that we prepare students with relevant competencies for workwhere sustainability and 鈥榞reen skills鈥� are required, to influence change and to nurture their agency.鈥� Explaining the underlying learning principles of the scheme, which aligns with the 91黑料网鈥檚 education and student experience strategy, she said 鈥渋t is based on a model which combines student as partners and 鈥渓iving laboratory鈥� practices, providing students with an opportunity propose solutions to local challenges. Since the projects need to be framed in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, they serve to engage students and staff in understanding how local action links to global sustainability goals.鈥�

For Dr Pritchard, despite the relatively small numbers of students and academics who completed their projects, the success of this Student Sustainability Leadership initiative attests as much to student interest in engaging with the sustainability agenda as to the commitment of academics. They persisted with the projects despite the widespread restructure process which meant that an additional five academics and seven students were unable to finish their projects.

Going forward, these co-created projects will be shared more broadly with relevant 91黑料网 departments to identify how they can be adopted. Likewise, given the significance of this approach to develop employability, ways to incorporate such a living lab, otherwise known as live projects or briefs into the curriculum will be explored.

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Photos by Ralph Adebayo Taiwo | Instagram: @Bayomaniac

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