Academics and students from all disciplines can help tackle climate change

Climate change will affect every aspect of society.

So all university disciplines have something to offer when it comes to tackling these issues: from the psychology of behaviour change to the history of successful social movements, from designing more energy-efficient computer hardware to developing works of art that challenge us to think about climate change.

So what can we do?

Around half a million students complete an undergraduate degree every year in the UK alone; in their final year almost all carry out a substantial piece of advanced coursework in collaboration with an expert supervisor: a research study, a production, a dissertation (let’s call them projects).

If just 1 in 5 student projects focused on climate change then, at such massive scale, significant impact is inevitable. Why?

We’re asking the academic community across all disciplines to help us achieve a target of 1 in 5 final year projects focusing on climate change, and we think this should be possible without adding to anyone’s workload.

Support for 1 in 5

  • "The 1in5 initiative will empower staff and students to work together to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time. We’re in. We’re committed."

    Prof Michael Banissy, Head of School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol

  • “It is crucial for university students to engage with the climate crisis and contribute to tackling it in an informed manner. We are working on this through a climate education campaign at Cambridge and are very excited about the impact the 1in5 project can have.”

    Aman Vernekar, President, Cambridge Climate Society

  • “This is a tremendously exciting project. Students and staff care about the planet's problems, but don't know how to help. They also have to run projects, and are searching for topics to research. Solving both problems at the same time is genius, and shows us that everyone can make a difference. Hopefully staff and students alike will soon be sharing a range of behavioural #1in5 projects on Pavlovia.org to help others get started”

    Prof. Jon Peirce, Founder of Open Science Tools Ltd, makers of Psychopy

  • "Just imagine the positive impact we can make, and the knowledge we can gain, by running tens of thousands of high-quality climate projects every year across the country. This is how you change the world."

    Prof. Chris Chambers, Cardiff University, co-founder of the UK Reproducibility Network

  • "Professions have key roles in tackling climate change and its environmental and human impacts. The College of Optometrists wishes to work with optometry researchers to contribute to the vital objectives of the 1in5 Project."

    Michael Bowen, Director of Knowledge & Research, College of Optometrists

What can academics do?

We are asking you to encourage and facilitate 1 in 5 of the students you work with to undertake a project that relates to climate change. This is not about changing the topic of their degree: If you’re a computer scientist (for example) think about how computer science is relevant to climate change.

This doesn’t mean additional work, since you are already supervising these students and there is nothing to register or report.

Remember it doesn’t matter what discipline you work in, we can all help tackle climate change. See our growing list of project ideas for inspiration.

If you want to take part, or like the idea, please let us know by clicking the support button.

What can students do?

The 1in5 project is asking universities, departments and individual lecturers to provide you with opportunities, within your academic discipline, to be part of a collection of students and staff working together on environment related problems

Any degree subject can be combined with climate change to create a final year composition, production, experiment, dissertation etc.

If you get to choose the topic of your project, then here are some ideas.  If your lecturers have a role in deciding the topic then ask them about 1in5, and if necessary direct them to this website. 

Click the button below for more ways to get involved.

Other university staff

If you are an administrator, librarian, manager or hold any other role in an academic institution and you would like to help, please click the button below for ways to get involved.

1 in 5: The details