The Student Sustainability Research Conference, held at the University of Leeds on 6 March 2024, showcased the research of over 100 students from across Yorkshire. This is the second year that the conference has been open to students from the twelve Yorkshire Universities (YU) member institutions across all levels and disciplines. The collaborative approach to …
Yuki Gauchan and Monika Antal, Yorkshire Universities On 1 December 2023, jointly with the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC) and the UPP Foundation we hosted a Multi-University Challenge Day on sustainability. The event showcased the power of collaboration among students from across the twelve universities in Yorkshire. Working together, they generated innovative ideas on a challenge …
This briefing provides an overview of key Higher Education (HE) policy developments up to July 2023, highlighting national updates that will impact HE in Yorkshire, as well as examples of key developments within the region. This briefing was originally shared to provide context and updates about the HE landscape to external partners that YU is working with across local government and has been adapted for our website.
Place-based approaches to policymaking seem to be gaining momentum in the UK. Whether people think it is cost-effective or feel it is just the right thing to do, the fact is that, over the last few years, there has been an increased interest in understanding the interconnections and relationships within a place and how working together can have a broader, deeper, and lasting change for the community. Within this context, in Hull and East Yorkshire, we have invited policymakers, academics and people with lived experience to sit at the same table, reflect on their role and take action and responsibility for improving the quality of life of their communities. In so doing, we have three underlying assumptions.
Given that it is widely acknowledged that the cheapest energy is that which you don’t use, we take a tangential approach to issues of energy prices and inflation and focus on energy efficiency policy that reduces demand at source. Our focus is housing retrofitting from an institutional or framework perspective. We briefly set out what retrofitting is (since this is a moving target), and what the need for it is in the UK. We then focus on the Climate Change Committee’s current assessment of policy. This brings to the fore the government’s minimalist approach to ‘developing a market’. We argue that this approach invokes an individualised market psychology which is both conceptually and practically problematic, given the need for urgency and the current situation of inflation and uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting a fundamental rethink is required.
Yorkshire Universities (YU) has been awarded £20,000 funding by the UPP Foundation to pilot a regional sustainability service-learning project. Ours is one of the eight pilot initiatives the UPP Foundation invested over £160,000 in. Funding was awarded to schemes which support student and graduate success for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, and for initiatives which support …
UPP Foundation awards over £160k in funding to outstanding pilot initiatives UPP Press release as published on 23 January 2023. The UPP Foundation, the registered charity founded by student accommodation and infrastructure business UPP, has invested over £160,000 in grant funding for eight innovative pilot projects with charities and universities. The projects were selected by …
This guest blog has been kindly contributed by Natasha Swiers, a recent Masters Student of Sustainability and Consultancy at the University of Leeds. This blog is a follow up to the contribution Natasha made at the West Yorkshire Skills Partnership ‘Sustainability Through Skills’ conference. More organisations are getting involved in sustainability as we become more …
The Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission is establishing a programme of ‘Delivering Impact’ sessions that will run through to early 2024 with a focus on net zero, climate resilience, nature recovery and fair and inclusive (or just) transitions in the region. Each of the open sessions (see below) will: examine evidence on key themes review …
Marina Tapley, Policy and Research Officer I joined Yorkshire Universities (YU) in November as the new Policy and Research Officer. After being part of the Executive Team for over a month, I am taking the opportunity to introduce myself, and to reflect on what I have enjoyed getting involved with at YU so far, and …
