FIE: Foundation for International Education
EN-3: Student Life

In 2014, FIE became the first and only non-university participant in the UK’s National Union of Students Student Switch Off (SSO) scheme. Student Switch Off is a nation-wide campaign that encourages students to save energy when living in university halls of residence. The program focuses on peer-to-peer communication and creating a sense of competition to provide incentives that go beyond just being more ‘environmentally friendly’. Each semester students from our programmes serve as volunteer Student Switch Off Ambassadors, promoting the scheme within the residence halls and working closely with our NUS colleagues and FIE's Student Life and Residence Life Teams. They participate in residence hall visits, take photos of their peers participating in sustainable activities for NUS Facebook Photo competitions, and circulate the mid-term sustainability quiz. All ambassadors complete training with NUS prior to engaging with our residences.

In addition to embedding sustainability into FIE’s academics and learning structure, FIE’s annual Student Global Leadership Conference (http://www.fie.org.uk/sglc) seeks to educate FIE’s students by exposing them to a professional conference. All speakers are briefed, regardless of topic, to relate their talk to sustainability. Students are encouraged to consider how, as leaders, they can incorporate and encompass the philosophy of sustainability into their future roles and goals as well as across the breadth of their daily life (from the personal to the working). In addition, the food at the conference is created with a carbon footprint mind-set and served on disposable sustainable plates with disposable sustainable cutlery, for example palm leaf plates. FIE is dedicated to being actively engaged with and aware of its environmental impact and responsibilities. As such, FIE is committed to a sustainable future, to ethical consumption, and to creating social, environmental, and economic well-being in our immediate and global community.

In our main residence hall in London, Metrogate, we have a permanent space named the 'Clix Exhibition,' which is a dedicated space for our Photojournalism students to display their works. The students explore a range of topics in their photographs, and many exhibitions have explored topics relating to sustainability such as London transport and discusses urban landscapes. FIE supports Orchestra Vitae (OV), a 63 piece orchestra of young professionals which aims to break the boundaries of formality between orchestra and audience and connect with people from all walks of life. OV regularly engage with local communities through outreach programs, for example having workshops at state schools to expose students to music via a variety of genres. OV also give concert talks and collaborate with musicians from a different genres. OV are a feature during our orientation and Student Global Leadership Conference (SGLC). Both CLIX (see URL below) and OV (http://www.fie.org.uk/about-us/our-values/fie-supports) is an example of how FIE not only views sustainability from an environmental point of view - but a holistic one - where we encourage a community of well-being.

Our Student Life Team and FIE Facilities provide recipe books in all residences to encourage students to cook rather than 'take away'. We also provide FIE created recipe cards with 5 simple meat free and economical meals for students. On arrival as part of Orientation, students are presented with a table full of groceries where they are invited to 'guess' the cost of the shopping bag and enter a prize rewarded raffle. The items chosen are healthy food items. The aim of the exercise is to show students that they can cook, eat healthily during their time in London, and by doing so they are not only saving money and eating well but they are reducing their carbon footprint by not relying on pre-packaged and processed food items. In addition to this we hold a culinary cooking class open to all of our residents regardless of major that introduces them to healthy eating and cooking practices. Food 101 is a non-academic program that takes place in our main residence, Metrogate. In addition, FIE has teamed with the 'Meat-free Monday campaign', this is advertised in FIE residences with the explanation that by choosing not to eat meat for at least just one day a week, one can greatly decrease the world's carbon footprint. This is also advertised through FIE's social media, as a 'two-tips Tuesday' campaign which informs students via Facebook of two simple and handy tips on how to reduce their carbon foot-print. Also, the five meat-free recipes -- specifically advertised on Meat-Free Mondays -- and general recipe book in all of FIE's residences help promote food ecology and awareness. For more information on FIE's articulated values please see here:http://www.fie.org.uk/about-us/our-values/fie-supports For more information on FIE's life-skill programs please see here: http://www.fie.org.uk/be-green

Students return to their sending institution to graduate.

As a study abroad provider we use London as our classroom for many of our programs, as such, students attend many co-curricular events in and around London. The majority of these co-curricular activities have sustainability weaved into their content. FIE’s courses reflect an engagement with its values of inclusivity, ethics and human rights, social and cultural engagement, and sustainability. For more nformation on how each of FIE’s courses maps to these values, please see FIE's 'Charting the Course' URL below.