Kingston University

The Kingston Sustainability Innovation Challenge

In September 2021 Kingston University’s Enterprise Education team launched the Sustainability Innovation Challenge (SIC), which coincided with COP26 hosted in Glasgow. The aim was to engage students in critical themes linked to sustainability and encourage them to see themselves as active agents of change. Themes were adopted from the COP26 website to focus students’ problem-solving activities. The SIC included lightning talks, in-curricular sessions, and a Hackathon (problem-solving workshop) open and co-facilitated by students from across the university. The SIC culminated in a poster exhibition showcasing students’ ideas developed in class and the Hackathon.

This initiative led our HackCentre to co-organise other hackathons focused on the UN SDGs with students in 2022 and 2023, using problem-solving and design-thinking approaches to equip students to see themselves as change agents.

Student engagement and the HackCentre on sustainability contributed significantly to the increase of cases embedding the UN SDG in the curriculum and partnerships with social stakeholders.

What the Judges Thought

Judges were impresssed by this application, outperforming some larger institutions with the number of students involved. The judges were pleased with how many local community stakeholders were involved and directly benefitting from student engagement on the project. There are lots of great examples of where they have shared best practice.

What it Means to Win

"Students understand better than anyone the impact of climate change. As a university, we must do all we can to contribute to this vital agenda, empowering students to act. I am delighted our efforts to put them at the heart of our strategy has been recognised."

Professor Steven Spier, Vice-Chancellor

Top 3 Learnings

1. Our student’s engagement with external stakeholders allowed them to contextualise complex sustainability concepts.
2. Our staff valued integrating hackathons in the curriculum and in assessments strengthening sustainability-focused problem-solving.
3. Our students felt more empowered to act more sustainably and enact change.