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To highlight that, for higher education (HE) to fulfil its role and provide societies with the required knowledge and competencies that will enable a sustainable future, through research, education and campus operations, it needs to cooperate and promote interdisciplinarity within the sector and with society at large.

This study is a follow-up on the author´s presentation, as President for the International Association of Universities (IAU), at the IAUP triennial conference 2021. It is not presenting outcomes of a specific research project but rather a personal experience and reflections on challenges and opportunities debated at global HE conferences, national and international seminars, IAU publications and global surveys.

There are many publications on challenges and opportunities when it comes to developing and capitalizing on the social responsibility of HE for a sustainable development. However, there is a lack of discussion on internal institutional responsibilities and support for the societal value of HE beyond the sector.

This is the personal view of the author and builds on a long experience as scientist and academic leader.

Food waste represents a major sustainability challenge with environmental, economic, social and health implications. Institutions of higher education contribute to generating food waste while serving as models in championing sustainability solutions. An experiential learning project was implemented as part of two university courses in a buffet-style university dining hall with the objective to reduce food waste while building student capacity to contribute to transformational food system change.

Partnerships were developed with university dining services. Students were trained to conduct a needs assessment in a university dining hall through food waste measurements. Students were facilitated through the process of applying baseline data on food waste to design, implement and evaluate a multi-component food waste intervention that consisted of offering reduced portion sizes, use of smaller serving utensils and educational messaging. Participant reflections were elicited to evaluate the effectiveness of the experiential learning experience.

The food waste intervention led to a 17 per cent reduction in total food waste, with a large portion of waste attributed to post-consumer plate waste. While the reduction in food waste was not statistically significant, it highlights the potential for food service operations to address food waste through reduction techniques while providing students an experiential opportunity that meets multiple learning objectives including systems thinking, collaboration and motivation for leading change in the food system.

This study highlights the opportunity of building student capacity to address sustainability challenges through an experiential learning model for reducing food waste in an institutional setting that other educators can adapt.

This paper explores the consequences of the introduction by National Health Service (NHS) trusts (i.e. hospitals) of their own pay systems. It is based on case studies of ten NHS trusts and involved 73 interview sessions with a variety of stakeholders and the examination of employment data and performance indicators. The research revealed the tensions and countervailing forces inherent in NHS pay: the tension between national and local pay; the tension between simplification and the need to address the different requirements of the many occupational groups in the NHS; the tension between performance pay and feelings of equity; and the tension between equal pay and the traditional pay determination arrangements. These findings are discussed in the context of the proposed new NHS pay system.