On Tuesday of Welcome Week all 8,000 new first year undergraduates students were invited to take part in the Sustainability Challenge.

Students worked in project teams across 171 classrooms in 9 buildings to develop a new campus for the fictitious University of Millchester. They had to incorporate factors such as costs and energy efficiency, while considering the needs of the local community and wider society.

Over 250 PSS and academic staff were involved in delivering the Challenge as facilitators, IT/AV/event support and plenary presenters.

The Sustainability Challenge forms part of the University’s Ethical Grand Challenges programme, which engages undergraduates with key global issues. Students will move onto exploring Social Justice in their second year and Workplace Ethics in their final year.

Ethical Grand Challenges are part of Stellify which encourages our students to do more and be more, and completion of the Sustainability Challenge is the first step towards students’ achieving Stellify’s Manchester Leadership Award.

Watch this short film about the Sustainability Challenge.

The University is excited to launch the first Ethical Grand Challenges event for all 8,000+ first year undergraduates – the Sustainability Challenge

As part of the 2016 Manchester Welcome all 8,000+ first year undergraduate students will take part in the Sustainability Challenge, a 2.5 hour simulation activity, based around the fictitious University of Millchester. Students, in mixed disciplinary groups, work against the clock to develop plans for a new campus, while global responses to climate change trigger a series of ‘game changing’ interventions.

The Sustainability Challenge is part of the University’s Flagship Social Responsibility initiative – the Ethical Grand Challenges Programme – which aims to enable every Manchester undergraduate to engage with three key ethical grand challenges in the course of their degree: Sustainability in Year 1; Social Justice in Year 2 and Workplace Ethics in Year 3.

As well as introducing students to the challenge of sustainability, the Welcome event introduces students to the kind of University Manchester is: committed to making a difference, and working across disciplines to solve problems.

Sustainability Challenge Day is Tuesday 20^th September. More than 200 staff and postgraduate research students from across the University have volunteered to help deliver the challenge. Getting students to the correct rooms at the right time is a huge logistical challenge. Students will receive personalised communications, telling them where to go and when, in the week before Welcome, and the information will also be published on personalised timetables. Schools will receive an information pack, including full detail of arrangements for September, and a range of promotional materials, later in August.