Urgent and transformative action is needed on the climate emergency. Universities have a central role to play in facilitating students’ commitment to sustainability and developing climate solutions; however, this requires collaboration, resourcing and rethinking our model of higher education.

In March 2025, Engineers Ireland partnered with the Royal Irish Academy and University of Galway to host a conference on sustainability in the engineering and computer science curriculum.

The event convened experts and stakeholders from institutions across the island of Ireland with the aim of shining a spotlight on successful programme development and identifying what best practice for embedding sustainability could look like.

Laura Burke, president of Engineers Ireland and director general of the EPA.

The keynote speech was delivered by Laura Burke, president of Engineers Ireland and director general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who outlined the EPA’s 'State of the environment report’ (2024) and the competencies needed in the engineering sector to drive innovation and support sustainability.

Engineers Ireland has published a new Sustainability Strategy, committed to reducing environmental footprint, enhancing sustainability education, and collaborating with diverse stakeholders.

Dr Elizabeth Hurley presenting at the conference on 'Integrating Sustainability in the Engineering and Computer Science Curriculum'.

The other conference speakers were: Professor Jennie Stephens (Maynooth University); Dr Mark Kelly (Atlantic Technological University); Dr Abeer Eshra (Maynooth University); Dr Elizabeth Hurley (University of Galway); Dr Beatrice Smyth and Natalie Le Seelleur (Queen’s University Belfast); and Dr Harun Šiljak (Trinity College Dublin).

Main findings 

  • Facilitating students’ commitment to sustainability: universities have a central role to play in facilitating students to develop a commitment to sustainability in thinking about the future;
  • Integrating sustainability across programmes: sustainability should be integrated both horizontally and vertically across curricula, i.e. strategically across the board, and within specific domains and subjects specifically;
  • Time: Integrating sustainability in the curriculum requires time from staff and students. Institutional commitment and resourcing are needed, including professional development for academic staff;
  • Resilience: students should be allowed time to discuss, to reflect, to fail (and fail better) thereby developing resilience in tackling ‘wicked problems’;
  • Case studies and community of practice: there is significant benefit to peer learning between academic staff and between students, and in sharing case studies across disciplines and between industry and academia;
  • Rethinking higher education: there is a need to promote ‘thinking sideways’, ie, thinking outside the siloed engineering and computer science frameworks;
  • Consistency and standardisation: Engineers Ireland’s accreditation could be more prescriptive on sustainability.

The conference report is available here and recordings of the presentations have been published to YouTube:

 

Author: Dr Richard Manton is director of sustainability at University of Galway and a former registrar of Engineers Ireland.