DE MONTFORT University collaborates with a whole series of organisations to further work on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The university’s volunteering programme is centred on the SDGs, researchers have to make a commitment to the Goals, and DMU’s Education for Sustainable Development centre provides a whole series of educational resources to further the SDGs.
Student volunteering
DMU’s SDG Impact Centre delivers a whole series of events during November and December concentrated on raising awareness of the SDGs to students and staff.
One of the event highlights sees student volunteers taking part in the Big River Clean-up working to clear waterways of plastics, litter and general rubbish in a collaboration with the Canal and River Trust and Leicester City Council.
Students work to clear rubbish from the River Soar and Grand Union Canal, in Leicester, as well as from land surrounding the waterways.
The Project Atefa volunteer programme sees students work with refugees and asylum seekers in the city, sharing their often-harrowing stories to help change the negative narrative surrounding forced migration.
The project is one of the cornerstones of DMU’s work as the global hub for SDG 16 and the university works with the British Red Cross and non-government organisations (NGOs) in Germany.
The Football for the Goals programme sees student volunteers working with local club, Leicester Nirvana, who are attempting to become the first net zero amateur sports club.
DMU works with the United Nations, which hopes to harness the popularity of sport to raise awareness of the SDGs. The university has also created an international network of amateur football clubs across Europe, Africa, and Asia who share best practice.
Student volunteers attend events and talk to youngsters at the club about the importance of the SDGs.
Research
All of DMU’s research programmes are expected to commit to the SDGs and there has been a particular emphasis on SDG 16 because of the university’s global hub status.
One of the biggest programmes has been ImpleMendez, which is led DMU Professor Dave Walsh, and now works with NGOs in more than 48 countries involved in helping to prevent miscarriages of justice.
It is an international project to improve the way in which suspects are interviewed and end unethical interrogations and now has more than 200 members from those 48 countries.
Education
DMU has led the way in teaching sustainability for over 20 years through its Masters programmes in the Institute of Energy and Sustainable and has now embedded the SDGs in a total of 200 modules across the university.
Students also get the chance to attend carbon literacy training and become Climate Ambassadors to raise the profiles of SDGs across the campus.
DMU collaborators with the SOS-UK (Students Organising for Sustainability) group for its annual SDG Teach-in, where universities across the UK aim to make links to one or more of the SDGs within their taught courses.
In 2024, DMU was the second placed university in the UK for the number of educators who pledged to include the SDGs in their course and the proportion of students reached by those sessions.