The latest SOS UK Sustainability Skills Survey (2024–25) reveals a cohort of Worcester students who are engaged, motivated, and ready to act on sustainability—but still not consistently experiencing it in their learning.
With 379 respondents, this year’s data paints a picture of growing capability and expectation, alongside a persistent gap between what students value and what they are taught. Read a comparison with the last two years’ data.
What’s changing?
Students are clearly developing strong, future-ready skills:
- Over 80% report gaining key competencies like critical thinking, goal setting and reflection
- Around 60–80% experience collaborative, interdisciplinary learning
- A huge majority agree universities should be responsible for developing sustainability skills
Even more striking, learning approaches are evolving:
- 88% have experienced collaborative learning
- Case studies, simulations, and problem-based learning are widely used—and largely seen as beneficial
In short: the how of teaching is improving.
But there’s a critical gap
Despite strong skills development, many students still report limited coverage of core sustainability challenges:
- Around half say climate change is not covered at all
- Similar levels report no teaching on nature loss, adaptation, or future job impacts
At the same time, students overwhelmingly:
- Want to learn more about sustainability
- See it as essential to their future careers and personal values
The message is clear: students are ready—but provision isn’t universal.
Top 3 Learnings
Skills are strong—but content is inconsistent
Students are building critical, transferable skills at scale, yet sustainability topics themselves are still unevenly embedded across courses.
Active learning works
Collaborative, real-world and problem-based learning is both widespread and effective—showing that experiential approaches are key to building sustainability capability.
Demand for sustainability is now mainstream
Students overwhelmingly expect sustainability to be part of their education—and see it as central to their future roles, not optional.
The 2024–25 findings highlight a turning point. Universities are successfully building the skills for a sustainable future—but now need to ensure every student, on every course, engages with the challenges those skills are meant to solve.