Green New Deal: Curriculum

Our interdisciplinary teaching at Goldsmiths has long incorporated issues linked to climate change, including the developmental, anthropological, structural, economic and political roots of the human impact on our climate.

As the global climate emergency intensifies, we are committed to ensuring all Goldsmiths students are able to learn about these key issues to be part of tackling them in the future.

Our action plan

Adapting our existing programmes

We will ensure that each programme taught at Goldsmiths provides students with interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary learning opportunities linked to climate change and sustainable living.

As part of our programme re-approval requirements under the Comprehensive Curriculum Review, departments will be supported to develop teaching on climate change and create space for interdisciplinary learning.

Developing a Common Curriculum

From 2023/24, undergraduate students at Goldsmiths will learn about ecology and sustainability issues through a new Common Curriculum or within their programme.

Through a module called Introduction to Global Ecological Change and Social Justice, students will learn about key social justice factors such as race, gender and poverty through the lens of ecology, the environment and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Establishing Social Change Projects

The Common Curriculum includes a Social Change module which will give Goldsmiths students the opportunity to undertake a cross-disciplinary project to problem-solve issues facing the Goldsmiths community and wider world.

Projects will be linked to students’ own interests and could tackle a range of topics including sustainability.

This follows student participation in the British Academy and SOS-UK SHAPE Sustainability Impact Projects in 2021-22.

Supporting local learning

We will work with our local community in London to develop a series of attractive and relevant online or face-to-face short-courses, micro-credentials or continuous professional development style programmes.

These will directly support local employment sectors in Lewisham and beyond, and cover topics including low-carbon and environmentally sustainable services.

Designing a long-term strategy for climate education

We are establishing a working group to consider where climate education should sit within the College’s academic portfolio over the longer term.

Responding to our students

We have listened to current and prospective students to help us design changes to our curriculum which incorporate climate change teaching.

In summer 2021, we worked with an external agency to conduct research with Year 12 and 13 students in the UK. Climate change was the top global challenge these students wanted to see addressed in their university curriculum, echoing previous research by Goldsmiths as well as a range of national and international surveys.

Our courses

Many Goldsmiths programmes tackle issues around climate change and ecology. 

One example of these programmes is our MA in Art and Ecology. It is designed for emerging artists who want to engage in meaningful and transformative ways with the most pressing ecological questions of our time.