Green Capital: Student Capital - Final evidence report

Clayton, William; Longhurst, James; Willmore, Chris

Abstract

Becoming the European Green Capital offers an opportunity for Higher Education (HE) institutions to support their cities in releasing the full potential of the Green Capital accolade, however HE’s involvement in previous Green Capitals has been limited. The Green Capital: Student Capital project has aimed to change this by putting students at the heart of Bristol’s European Green Capital 2015 year, encouraging and facilitating student engagement in a wide range of both curricular and extra-curricular placement and volunteering activities with a Green Capital focus.

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 citywide impact during European Green Capital. It delivered a programme of student and staff engagement in enhancing sustainability within the city and has developed student and staff engagement with sustainability action. Through action research approaches it is also providing lessons for how institutions can collaborate across cities and communities to have internal and external impacts for sustainability.

The project has been uniquely timed to explore this in the context of Bristol Green Capital 2015, the first UK city to achieve this designation, and in which the two Universities have already been instrumental in developing and sustaining the Bristol Green Capital Partnership of over 850 organisations.

Students in Bristol have given 128,049 hours of their time to engaging with local organisations and tackling issues of sustainability in the city and wider region. This equates to 75.2 years’ worth of work provided to date, and an economic contribution of £1,264,4251.

The Student Capital project has been instrumental in engaging over 7,500 students in the Green Capital year.

The Student Capital project has celebrated and rewarded the efforts of students through the new Change Maker award. This award is given to students that have given both their time and effort to tackling the sustainability challenges we face. There is also the Gold Change Maker award, which is given to those students who have made an outstanding contribution.

In addition to the dissemination activities described above, the Student Capital was also a finalist for the national 2015 Green Gown Awards in the Student Engagement category, based on only the first six months of the project. The competition judges commended the Student Capital project as: “A well-designed project of impressive scale and addressing vital issues of employability skills and the contribution of students to the city”. Student Capital has been shortlisted as a finalist in the upcoming 2016 Green Gown Awards, and a copy of the Stage 1 award application is included in Appendix A of this document.

Student Capital has generated significant academic output about student sustainability engagement which demonstrates the value of involving Higher Education institutions in tackling the key challenges we face in society today. This knowledge base will be made available via the links on Skills Bridge and the Universities’ research repositories, providing a flexible and up-to-date.

The Student Capital project has created Skills Bridge as a legacy for the ongoing partnership between students, the Universities, and organisations across the city and the region.

Citation

Clayton, W., Longhurst, J., & Willmore, C. Green Capital: Student Capital - Final evidence report

• Report Type: Project Report
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Green Capital Student Capital, student engagement, sustainability, placement, internship, volunteer
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/917949