A focus on environmental change

Five schools of psychology have backed an ambitious project which encourages one in five undergraduate students to focus on environmental change in their final year projects. The schools, at the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, and Queen Mary University of London, have joined the 1in5 Project.

Every year in the UK around 500,000 university students in their final year complete a research project, composition, dissertation or show – with support from an expert in a given field. Professor Simon Rushton (Cardiff University), whose day job involves research on visual perception, was one of a group of psychologists who developed the idea for the project.

'We really want to emphasise that 1in5 is an idea… myself and my colleagues didn't want to put our names all over it because we want it to be about the project rather than the people behind it. Pretty much every academic, and most people, nowadays worry about climate and we all feel a bit guilty and a bit helpless in the face of climate change. We came up with the idea for 1in5 and really wanted to make it palatable for academics – there's no additional workload and we don't tell people what to do.'

Rushton and colleagues Dr Paul Warren and Dr George Farmer (both University of Manchester), Professor Ulrike Hahn (Birkbeck, University of London), and Professor Nick Scott-Samuel (University of Bristol) developed the idea. 'What we're doing is taking something we already do, and saying to people who are interested in climate that they could focus their final year work in that area – it's not five in five or four in five but one in five. As academics whenever we want to do something we have to ask permission, but when it comes to final year projects that's decided between the student and the academic. 
'It's pretty unlikely that one final-year project focused on climate would make a difference, but when you scale it up it really could have an impact. And students are, naturally, very anxious about climate.'

Rushton pointed to the work of the Cambridge Climate Society, run by students, which published a demand letter calling on the University of Cambridge to do more in the face of the climate emergency. He said he hoped the 1in5 project may eventually evolve into a student-led initiative and has asked students for feedback while developing the idea and has engaged a placement student, Octavia Cheney, to research ways to optimise 1in5 for engagement by students and staff. 

'There's no better way of upsetting young people than saying "climate's a big problem – you need to go and sort it". We really felt that staff had to set up 1in5 and show that we were leading the way and making the effort, but we're also very conscious that if students are going to end up driving this, they need to be happy with it.' 

The 1in5 project also allows students to work within their field of expertise while also acknowledging the environment, climate change or biodiversity in their work. 'This is helpful as it also suits academics who don't need to worry about reinventing themselves as climate scientists, they just find an environment angle on what they are already doing.'

The 1in5 website lists some ideas for climate-related project in numerous fields, and Rushton said they were always happy to receive more ideas.

Some of the suggested psychology-related projects include attitudes towards climate change, children's understanding of protecting the environment, communicating environmental risks, and encouraging climate-friendly diets. 

The project also encourages students to engage in final-year projects which involve working with outside organisations. Rushton pointed to the work of Dr Jennifer O'Brien (University of Manchester) who set up the University Living Lab which links student research projects with organisations to help them meet sustainability goals. 

As vision scientists Rushton, Warren and Scott-Samuel have also worked with one of their professional organisations, the Applied Vision Association (AVA), to spread the word about the 1in5 project. If you would like to get involved with 1in5, have ideas for undergraduate projects which link to the environment, or work with an organisation which could support climate-related undergraduate projects, visit the website or email [email protected].