HEA ESD and Academic Quality Workshop

This workshop, hosted by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and facilitated by Dr Alex Ryan, supports Irish higher education institutions in strategically implementing high-quality Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The workshop aligns directly with the Government of Ireland’s ESD to 2030 Strategy and the HEA’s ESD programme objectives, specifically:

• Advancing Policy
• Training and Capacity-Building of Educators

The programme addresses key strategic aspects of ESD, promoting best practices around quality assurance, transparency, and effective responses to student demand for sustainability-focused education.

Key topics include

1. Strategic ESD development – building professional capacity to develop and implement effective multi-stakeholder, cross-portfolio curriculum change strategies, in alignment with related education strategy priorities (ESD to 2030; CJUU network reports, 2024)
2. Good practice – addressing new concerns around transparency and academic quality principles in ESD, to ensure relevance and efficacy of the offer (UNECE ESD strategy priority ‘ESD and Quality Education’; UK QAA funded projects ESD and Quality, 2023)
3. Learner needs – delivering curricula that respond to consistent student demand for ESD in all courses (SOS-UK 2024), applicant decision-making in sustainability (QS survey 2024) and graduate career expectations in sustainability and industry (Deloitte 2024)

Intended Outcomes

1. Increased knowledge of best practice in ESD progress assessment and quality criteria
2. Understanding how student expectations in ESD can be embedded in policy and CPD
3. Improved ESD change leadership capability relevant to institutional contexts and needs
4. Action planning with participants to progress local institutional ESD delivery plans
5. Collaborative capacity building using expertise across the national ESD leads network

Registration:
This event is by invitation-only. For further information, please contact admin@teachingandlearning.ie

Lead Facilitator

Dr Alex Ryan is Director at Learning Energy Education for Sustainability. An experienced, award-winning higher education sustainability director and certified coach, Alex has a strong track record in academic and operational sustainability. Specialising in ESD, she has led significant curriculum change and large-scale funded R&D projects, including the UK QAA-funded ‘Anti-Greenwash Education’ project (2022-23). A UK National Teaching Fellow (2017), Alex is recognised for significant impact in ESD at institutional and sector levels and authored a REF2021 impact case study on embedding ESD into higher education curricula. She is an invited expert on QAA/Advance HE groups focusing on UK national ESD guidance and subject benchmark integration.

Contributors

Dr Amanda Platt (PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons), PgCert) is a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education Practice at Ulster University, UU Education for Sustainable Development Lead and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2018, Amanda initiated an institution-wide and multi-faceted approach to explicitly embed Education for Sustainable Development in academic quality processes and across all discipline curricula, using the globally recognised UN Sustainable Development Goals. As Chair of the UU Responsible Futures Working Group (2023-), Amanda led Ulster University’s successful submission for SOS-UK Responsible Futures Accreditation, earned in January 2025 following a student-led audit. Dr Platt is also Course Director of the PgCert in Higher Education Practice (PgCHEP) and in 2020 explicitly embedded ESD in the curricula of this Advance HE accredited mandatory programme (Descriptor 2, PSF, 2023), which is undertaken by new Ulster educators.

Colette Murphy is Senior Lecturer and Curriculum Consultant in Higher Education Practice at Ulster University. In a range of diverse academic and academic-related roles spanning 20 years at Ulster University, Colette has gained significant experience in leading and co-leading partnerships and the co-production of Institutional, National and International curriculum change projects. Areas of specialism include Curriculum Design, Service Design, Future Skills and cross-cutting themes of ESD and wellbeing. She is co-founder and lead developer on Ulster’s Integrated Curriculum Design framework (ICDF) and is currently leading the service design of an institutional curriculum approval system. Colette has BSc and a MSc degree and a PGCert in Higher Education Practice. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).