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This paper aims to report on a project to adapt existing material from some modules on sustainability delivered face-to-face by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Science to create a non-credit bearing course in sustainability delivered on-line and available to all students at the University. A total of 250 staff and students signed up for the course, 104 completed at least one multiple choice test and 49 completed the essay assignment for the Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR) recognition. Feedback from students completing the evaluation questionnaire was overwhelmingly positive. The authors reflect on lessons learnt in preparing and delivering the course and the impact on university strategy.

The course was piloted in the 2014-2015 academic year.

A total of 250 staff and students signed up for the course; 104 completed at least one multiple choice test and 49 completed the essay assignment for HEAR recognition. Feedback from students completing the evaluation questionnaire was overwhelmingly positive.

The paper presents a case study of a bottom-up approach to the introduction of sustainability literacy modules on an institution-wide scale that has influenced changes at senior management level.

The institution of food and cookery exhibitions and the dissemination of practical knowledge with respect to cookery by means of lectures and demonstrations are excellent things in their way. But while it is important that better and more scientific attention should be generally given to the preparation of food for the table, it must be admitted to be at least equally important to insure that the food before it comes into the hands of the expert cook shall be free from adulteration, and as far as possible from impurity,—that it should be, in fact, of the quality expected. Protection up to a certain point and in certain directions is afforded to the consumer by penal enactments, and hitherto the general public have been disposed to believe that those enactments are in their nature and in their application such as to guarantee a fairly general supply of articles of tolerable quality. The adulteration laws, however, while absolutely necessary for the purpose of holding many forms of fraud in check, and particularly for keeping them within certain bounds, cannot afford any guarantees of superior, or even of good, quality. Except in rare instances, even those who control the supply of articles of food to large public and private establishments fail to take steps to assure themselves that the nature and quality of the goods supplied to them are what they are represented to be. The sophisticator and adulterator are always with us. The temptations to undersell and to misrepresent seem to be so strong that firms and individuals from whom far better things might reasonably be expected fall away from the right path with deplorable facility, and seek to save themselves, should they by chance be brought to book, by forms of quibbling and wriggling which are in themselves sufficient to show the moral rottenness which can be brought about by an insatiable lust for gain. There is, unfortunately, cheating to be met with at every turn, and it behoves at least those who control the purchase and the cooking of food on the large scale to do what they can to insure the supply to them of articles which have not been tampered with, and which are in all respects of proper quality, both by insisting on being furnished with sufficiently authoritative guarantees by the vendors, and by themselves causing the application of reasonably frequent scientific checks upon the quality of the goods.

Recognising that there is increasing urgency to equip graduates to become future leaders in delivering the sustainable development goals (SDGs), this study presents a critical analysis of a whole-institution approach to embedding education for sustainable development (ESD) in curricula. This study aims to explore the wider reach of adopting a similar approach within varied professional practices and institutional settings.

The approach is mixed-methods action research framed within a revised institutional strategy. The authors place this in the wider context of ESD in higher education.

Embedding ESD in curricula and recognition of its relevance across all disciplines were important to stakeholders. These outcomes translated into strategic commitments. Within the first year of the strategy, Carbon Literacy was embedded in almost 20% of courses and in progress in a further 25%; ESD was embedded in 42% of courses and in progress in a further 7%; and over 80% of students agreed with the statement “My course provides me with the opportunities to gain knowledge and skills relating to sustainable development”.

This work demonstrates effective measures that can be amplified across the sector, framed by two overarching principles that are effective regardless of context: demonstration that sustainability adds value to academic activities and consultation and co-creation to build a shared vision and support for change.

This paper aims to examine two issues: whether provisions on frivolous claims in the European Union (EU)–Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) would be Vietnam’s intrinsic demand, and to what extent, Vietnam may enjoy the benefits from these provisions.

This paper combines both doctrinal legal analysis and policy research. It offers an in-depth case study of the provisions on frivolous claims in the EVIPA, compares them with those of other existing international investment agreements and arbitrations rules, examines how similar provisions in these instruments are interpreted in available practical international investment disputes, uncovers the Vietnam’s position through interviewing Vietnamese senior experts, who were members of the Vietnamese delegation negotiating the EVIPA, and through available collected data and then evaluates whether these provisions may be favourable to this country.

While the new investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in the EVIPA can be viewed as explicit evidence of the EU’s achievement, it may also be Vietnam’s benefits to entertain new ISDS provisions on frivolous claims. They were drafted, based on the ISDS arbitration practice, states’ experience and actual situations in Vietnam. These novel provisions, among other things, serve as Vietnam’s prerequisites to consider whether to accept the new two-tier standing mechanism or not. The inclusion of such ISDS provisions in the EVIPA, therefore, is supposed to meet the Vietnam’s intrinsic demands for defending against unfounded frivolous cases.

This is the first time the EU concluded an investment treaty containing innovative ISDS provisions with a developing country. This paper therefore may help envisage Vietnam’s perspective during its negotiation of provisions on frivolous claims in the EVIPA and prove that the avails of these provisions to a frequent respondent State like Vietnam can be realised. The paper’s findings mean for research in investment law as well as for policymakers as far as the frivolous cases are concerned.