Universities develop a more sustaina...( Experts from the worlds of law geogr...)

Experts from the worlds of law, geography, economics, public health and town planning will meet at UCL (University College London) on Friday September 19th to examine the ways in which today's universities can become locally-rooted champions for global sustainability, reaching out to the wider community to help bring about lasting change. The symposium, which is called: "The Sustainable University: Relating Ecological Thinking, Learning and Research", will feature a keynote speech by Professor Michael M'Gonigle, co-founder of Greenpeace International and Professor and Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy at the University of Victoria.

Putting the event into context, Dr Jane Holder, Reader of Environmental Law at UCL and one of the event organisers, said: "The United Nations designated 2005-2014 the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and the goal was to integrate the principles of sustainable development into all aspects of education, encouraging people to help create a more sustainable future.

"Early initiatives seemed to focus on schools and were quite rightly seeking to 'embed' sustainable development in the curriculum, but we're trying to move beyond this by questioning more fundamentally, and hopefully more radically, the role of the university in 'sustaining the world'.

"The focus of our symposium will be on sustainability and learning, but at the heart of the seminar is a concern with how, as researchers and teachers, we can create genuine and valuable intellectual and practical links with other disciplines, local communities, and wider research networks engaging with a broader base of people to help implement change."

There are already numerous examples of universities which are engaging in active community participation, such as:

• UCL's Centre for Law and the Environment which has fostered long term working relationships with NGOs and agencies, leading to student internshi
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