Green Universities and eco-friendly learning: from league tables to eco-entrepreneurship education

The United Nations World Summit, 2005, advocated equipping students with the knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes needed to work and live in a way that safeguards environmental, social and economic wellbeing. 2014 marked the 10th and final year of the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development; with over two thirds of students surveyed believing that sustainable development should be covered in their degree courses (surveyed in 2010, 2011 and 2012, People & Planet, 2015). This paper outlines recent developments in incorporating green business, sustainable products and eco-entrepreneurship into HEI business school curricula. The focus is survey research of n=150 students at one HEI in the UK, and interviews with the Head of Estates and the Director of Student Engagement, to ascertain student attitudes towards the introduction of ‘green business’ modules; and the views of senior staff on student engagement in environmental improvements. The results are mapped onto two dimensions (interest in the environment and interest in a green module) and four conceptual domains (colour coded - red, yellow, light green, dark green) to exemplify the differentiation in student attitudes; and the concomitant need to develop different strategies for implementing curriculum development. Results indicate the majority of students in the sample displayed negative attitudes towards curriculum development in this regard. In general, red classified students (‘cynical’) tended to see curriculum development in this area as irrelevant; yellow (‘instrumentalist’) and dark green (‘advocate’) were more positive. Light green (‘complacent’) tended to feel they had enough environmental awareness without further curriculum development. Implications for curriculum development, student engagement, and plans for improving the green rating of the target HEI are provided by reviewing current KPI data against the top performing HEI in the UK (Green Planet index, 2015). The results are applicable to other HEIs across Europe