Approximately 600 first year students have enrolled in a new sustainability-focused module at Trinity this semester.
This comes a year after the launch of a strategic initiative aimed at incorporating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) throughout the curriculum.
The new module “Enacting Sustainable Development” is now mandatory for all first year students enrolled in Trinity Business School, including Global Business, Business Economics and Social Studies (BESS), and Law and Business students.
This module, which has been in development for over a year, is designed to be “radically interdisciplinary” consisting of history, science, politics, economics and ethics. It was designed by Trinity Fellows in ESD, which includes academics from all three faculties, alongside student interns.
The module aims to equip students with the “competencies and skills needed to grapple with the global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss”.
Associate Professor Norah Campbell, who is leading the module, said it offers students a “chance to understand issues not normally taught in Business Schools” including earth science, corporate political activity and colonialism.
Professor Jane Stout, Vice President of Biodiversity and Climate Action added: “By embedding these issues in the curriculum, we can prepare future generations to act as agents of change for sustainable development, in both their professional and personal lives.”
The introduction of this module caught many students by surprise, who did not think they would be attending science-related lectures during their first week in the Business School.
Lea Tsolov, a first-year BESS student, told Trinity News of her experience in the course so far: “I will definitely see benefits in the long run, even though right now it was a bit of a shock, I was not expecting the module to be so science-oriented”.
“Nowadays these kinds of skills are in demand among companies and a lot of students don’t have enough knowledge on climate change and the threats that it might pose on our planet,” she added.
Lucy, another BESS student, who requested to be named by first name only, echoed Tsolov’s sentiment regarding employability.
“In my opinion, the module provides us with a skill that will make us super employable in the future and with a very unique perspective in terms of sustainability which is obviously becoming a more urgent and necessary subject”.
Both students feel that the module has broadened their perspectives on the subject matter.
“It has opened my eyes to a much more intricate set of problems than I initially
believed we were facing as a society,” Lucy said.
“It made me reflect on the sustainability of my lifestyle, it also showed me a different approach to economics,” added Tsolov.
“In economics, we are often looking for exponential growth, but this module made me realise that that might not always be positive”.
The class size and lecture length however, presents some issues according to the students: “I think as a group of 530 the content can feel quite heavy, especially given that it’s a two-hour lecture. During the smaller workshops we’ve been able to interact more.”
“Some people have been spotted leaving during our breaks and this week had substantially less attendance than last week, so that probably says enough,” Lucy said.
Trinity plans to make similar ESD modules available throughout college with the aim of providing all students with “the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to promote sustainable development within planetary boundaries”.
