{"id":6765,"date":"2026-09-26T14:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T14:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?p=6765"},"modified":"2026-09-26T14:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T14:50:17","slug":"the-open-university-recognised-as-an-official-skills-for-planet-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/the-open-university-recognised-as-an-official-skills-for-planet-university\/","title":{"rendered":"The Open University recognised as an Official Skills for Planet University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are delighted to share that The Open University has been formally recognised by the Design Council <\/a>as an Official Skills for Planet University. This recognition acknowledges the work of the Design team in embedding sustainability, systems thinking and social impact throughout the curriculum and student learning experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Developed by the Design Council, the Skills for Planet<\/a> framework identifies the knowledge, capabilities and mindsets designers need to help address the interconnected social and environmental challenges of our time. You can view Rachel Bronstein\u2019s interview <\/a>where she discusses skills for planet and her own experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award reflects a growing commitment across the new Bachelor of Design<\/a> to equip students with the capabilities needed to address the complex challenges facing people, places and the planet. In the new modules at Level 2 starting next week, T240 Design for Impact<\/a> and T290 Design Projects<\/a>, students explore how design can contribute to positive social and ecological change. In T240, students will develop skills in design for impact and delve into some emerging design roles and perspectives of design as sense-making, collaboration making, venture making and systemic change making. In T290, students engage in self-directed projects, tackling real-world challenges linked to sustainability, while building their identity as designers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, this recognition is particularly meaningful because it validates a vision of design education that sees sustainability not as a specialist topic, but as a core responsibility of contemporary design practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we continue to develop the Bachelor of Design, Skills for Planet principles will be further embedded in our new Level 3 modules, supporting students to deepen their understanding of design for transformation, sustainability and systems change as they prepare for graduate and professional practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am really excited about joining a national movement of universities championing green skills and systems thinking, and helping to prepare the next generation of designers to contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and resilient future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are delighted to share that The Open University has been formally recognised by the Design Council as an Official Skills for Planet University. This recognition acknowledges the work of the Design team in embedding sustainability, systems thinking and social impact throughout the curriculum and student learning experience. Developed by the Design Council, the Skills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,254],"tags":[35,10],"class_list":["post-6765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-education","category-design-for-sustainability","tag-design-education","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6767,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions\/6767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}