Bradford students excel in global sustainability test
University of Bradford School of Management's students have excelled in an international, UN-backed programme that aims to measure the understanding higher education graduates have of sustainable development.
Professor Jon Reast and Kristine Pledaite
The Sustainability Literacy Test has been taken by 25,000 students around the world and analyses how green issues are being taught in universities around the globe.
Bradford’s top performing student, Kristina Pledaite, scored 92 per cent in the test and a further 13 scored more than 70 per cent in the multiple choice exam. The global average for the test is 53.28 per cent.
Sustainability is a key focus of the University of Bradford School of Management, which also offers the world-first Circular Economy MBA, and the test will help to shape future teaching to ensure all students understand the importance of sustainable development.
Senior lecturer in marketing at Bradford, Dr Kyoko Fukukawa, has led the test programme at the school and says they are already planning to rerun it at the end of the school year.
Professor Jon Reast and Natalia Frovola
She says: “We embed sustainability and sustainable development into everything we do here at Bradford and we leapt at the chance to take part in this global UN initiative which will provide a benchmark for every higher education establishment to aim for.
“Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the business world and our continuing focus on introducing sustainability concepts to every part of our education programme will ensure our students continue to be among the most attractive to potential employers.
“We’re very proud of the scores our students have achieved. We hope to run the test again at the end of this school year and we know every one of our students will have an opportunity to have an even deeper understanding of the importance of sustainability.”
Mark De Bruijn and Professor Jon Reast
Among the undergraduates, Natalia Frovola and Oladapo Agboola both scored more than 70 per cent. In years two and three, Alexander Popov, Kaur Parvinder and Muqadis Jabbin all scored more than 80 per cent, while post graduate student Mark De Bruijn scored 88 per cent and a further seven post graduate students also scored more than 80 per cent.
Top performer Kristina Pledaite said the sustainability element of the education at Bradford was hugely important and would play a critical role in her future success.”