Goal 14: Learning and students
The University’s learning and student activities play a key role in our approach to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Here’s a wider showcase of our work addressing Goal 14.
Our undergraduate students have assisted a study into the effects of warming ocean waters on the small-spotted catshark embryo’s freeze response: a technique whereby the embryo stops moving so that predators won’t detect them.
The research found that with a 5°C water temperature increase there was a seven-fold decrease in the length of time the embryos froze for in the presence of a predator stimuli, indicating that as oceans warm, many shark and ray species may reduce in number due to increased predation.
Our Geography undergraduates study an Environmental Pollution unit covering water control strategies.
Life science undergraduates take units on biodiversity, conservation biology and marine biology, including fieldwork examining organisms living on shores and the seabed.
At master’s level, our Pollution and Environmental Control programme prepares students for a career in environmental management and resource conservation.
We deliver cutting-edge teaching on clean water and sanitation. For example, Civil Engineering students take a course unit on water engineering, which covers water and wastewater treatment and resource management.
Master’s students in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Reconstruction are offered a unit on water movement that looks at solutions to groundwater contamination.