Science education for humanity: Pathways to sustainable impact
The Festival of Learning and Teaching (FOLAT) is Imperial’s annual collaborative and celebratory forum of educational innovation and achievement across the university. This year the event took place in March 2025 on the South Kensington campus.
Our focus for the event was on sustainability in higher education. Over the three days we considered this from several angles: how we develop our students’ and graduates’ understanding and commitment to sustainability through our STEMMB curricula; how we develop, share and motivate sustainable learning and teaching practices in the pursuit of our strong and varying educational goals; how we collaborate and support each other as a university community to foster and reward contributions towards developing a more sustainability-oriented culture.
We addressed tensions between sustaining excellence in terms of institutional goals and educational experiences and outcomes and building and maintaining strong and supportive relationships and sense of wellbeing. We considered some of the current opportunities and challenges faced by our education communities, exploring over three days what sustainability in STEMM higher education means and how we can better embed sustainability informed approaches through our community’s approaches.
Post-event resources
Keynote session: Educating for the future we want: sustainability and transformation in critical times
Presentation
By Onesmus Mwabonje and Polina Levontin, Centre for Environmental Policy
Student and tutor perspectives of a clinical placement focusing on Sustainable Primary Care
By Dr Roshni Bhudia, Leila Grocott, Dr James Jensen-Martin, Faculty of Medicine
Equipping future public health leaders with the skills to tackle global health challenges
By Dr Stuart Hofer and Dr Charlotte Vrinten, Faculty of Medicine
Embedding sustainability development goals in teaching
By Esther Canonico Martin, Management & Entrepreneurship, Business School
Sustainability and Immunology: did you know?
By Dr Sophie Rutschmann, Department of Immunology and Inflammation and Dr Bronwen Burton, University of Bristol
The Global Fellows Programme: an immersive international experience for doctoral students
By Laura Bulmer, International Relations Office; Dr Magdalena Jara; Dr Helal Ahmed; Dr Elena Forasacco; Dr Paul Seldon, Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI)
“Introduction to Climate Change”: designing a sustainability module for all
By Dr Maria Vinograd, Centre for Environmental Policy; Mark Eggins, Learning Designer, Interdisciplinary EdTech Lab
Authentic Assessment for Sustainability
By Dr Alexandra Collins, Centre for Environmental Policy
Teaching Sustainability in STEMM through real-world industry examples
By Chetna Vaghela, Centre for Environmental Policy
Bridging the gap - now and next for sustainability teaching in IC Chemistry
By Dr Laura Patel, Dalia Taleb, Department of Chemistry
Mapping the curriculum: are we developing students’ sustainability competencies?
By Dr Nigel Forrest, Centre for Environmental Policy
Beyond the Classroom The Role of Field Visits in Teaching Sustainability
By Dr Ahmadreza Faghih Imani, Centre for Environmental Policy
In Case of Emergency - adopting the case method for teaching sustainability
By Jay DesLauriers, ECRI and Imperial College Business School
Undergraduate Medical Students’ Views on Sustainable Healthcare
By Dr Amir Fathi, Dr Anna Ogier, Faculty of Medicine
Integrating Sustainability into Your Curriculum: Lessons Learned from 50 Years of Teaching Sustainability
By Dr Tilly Collins, Centre for Environmental Policy
Working with community groups to embed sustainability into medical education curricula
By Dr Stephanie Bull, Dr Roshni Bhudia and Dr Ravi Parekh, School of Public Health
Sustainability: the golden thread through Bioscience Futures MSc.
By Dr. Anne Burke-Gaffney, NHLI; Blerina Ahmetaj-Shala, NHLI; Dr Michael Weatherburn and Dr Mark Pope from the Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication; Dr Nigel Forrest, Centre for Environmental Policy; Dr Roshni Bhudia, School of Public Health
How can we embed sustainability education across all of our programmes?
Dr Mike Tennant (chair, FoNS); Jason Riley, FoE; Eirini Sampson (PDRA, CEP); Julia Mitra (UG, Chem. Eng.); Maurizio Zollo (ICBS); Stephanie Yeung (ICU); Viral Thakerar (FoM).