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Agricultural Universities Council Logo

Food, farming and land use need to undergo rapid and sustained change if the world is to address climate, biodiversity and health crises. This transformation requires changes in policy, yet will also rely on the actions of farmers and land managers on the ground. Their knowledge, skills and motivations, and those of their advisors, are crucial to success. This retreat provided an opportunity for educators who lead agriculture degree courses to share resources and inject fresh content into their courses.

This retreat was funded by the Aurora Trust and The Mark Leonard Trust.

While much farming know-how is developed through practical experience and peer networks, agricultural education plays a vital role, not only via its direct impact on the incoming generation, but also by shaping norms and attitudes throughout the industry. It can however, be hard for teaching programmes to keep up with emerging  thinking, science and developments on the ground. The purpose of this retreat was to make it easier, helping the academics who lead agriculture degree courses to inject fresh content – inspiring, practically relevant and forward-looking – into their courses.

Across four days, individuals responsible for leading degree courses heard from a range of organisations, sharing resources that can be readily used within taught modules. These included videos, case studies, research, data and guest lecturers. This retreat provided an opportunity for organisations to share their work and insights with many of the next generation farm managers, advisors, policy-makers and leaders, via their degree programmes. A range of sectors, farming systems and issues were discussed. Some with a focus on policy, others on management and innovation. Strong themes throughout the programme included sustainable, regenerative and agroecological farming. 

Related Organisations

Connected Content

The Agricultural Universities Council (AUC-UK) is a collaboration of the UK universities with agricultural schools or departments. AUC-UK works together to coordinate our teaching and research, to make the biggest contribution we can to a resilient and sustainable future for agriculture, land management and food systems.

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Thrive through change with the Royal Agricultural University

As a specialist postgraduate university, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally

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Aiming to strengthen the impact and benefit of agricultural research at scale. Supported by the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust.

FarmED slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Farm Wildlife slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Put Science into Practice

TIAH slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

British Growers slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Trinity Natural Capital slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Agrimetrics developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Agri-EPI Centre slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Pasture for Life Presentation slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Farm491 slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

ADAS slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the Agricultural Universities Council (AUC) Educators Retreat 2023. 

The Institute of Agricultural Management slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Crop Health & Protection (CHAP) slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Organic Research Centre slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

RASE and Innovation for Agriculture slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Food, Farming & Countryside Commission Presentation slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Agricology slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

AHDB slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Soil Association slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Farm Carbon Toolkit Presentation slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Food and Farming Futures and The National Libraries for Agri-food slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Forestry Commission Agroforestry slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Sustain slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

Landworkers' Alliance slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

CLA slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

NFU slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

GWCT slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.

TABLE slides developed to share with educators who lead agriculture degree courses at the AUC Educators Retreat 2023.