The latest Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) has been recently released, in which health profession students evaluate planetary health content at their universities. KI has improved its scores in most areas, especially in support for student-led sustainability initiatives.
This year, KI is participating in the evaluation for the third time, with both the medical program and, for the second year, the physiotherapy program being reviewed. The goal of the evaluation is to raise awareness of planetary health at the university and provide concrete suggestions for improvement, with the long-term aim of strengthening planetary health in Sweden and across the globe.
Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) was started in 2019 by students at the University of California, San Francisco, and has since spread to universities worldwide.
Higher scores in several areas
Besides higher scores for student-led sustainability initiatives, such as the presentation of the PHRC report at KI's Sustainability Day and the newly established student competition, KI has also improved in interdisciplinary research, campus sustainability, and the integration of planetary health into the curriculum.
"We're happy to see that KI's score continues to improve across almost all PHRC sections. This highlights KI's ongoing commitment to planetary health. As students, we feel that our voices are being taken more seriously, for example, we were invited to present the PHRC at Sustainability Day", say Paula Ittay Strobel Gallego and Tanja Paul, two of the students behind the report.
Despite these advances, the overall score for the medical program remains a B, the same as last year. This shows there is still room for development, which is also a key purpose of the evaluation: to highlight both strengths and areas for improvement from a student perspective.
"For the medical program, the score for the curriculum section is high. We're glad to see the existing learning activities, but we believe there is a need for clearer and more specific learning objectives related to planetary health", says Paula Ittay Strobel Gallego.
Programmes scores move together
The physiotherapy program is participating for the second year in a row and has raised its overall grade from C+ to B-. Most of the sub-scores are shared with the medical program, so the increase mainly reflects KI's overall improvements in research, student initiatives, and campus work. What differentiates the programmes is the rating of their syllabi, where the Physiotherapy Programme needs some further development but is well on its way, with clear profession-specific learning objectives for future professional practice.
Looking ahead - continued development and commitment
"We want KI to strengthen its visibility and role in shaping public opinion on planetary health through, for example, public events, internal communication, and educational materials. Introducing clear learning objectives in all programmes and investing in teacher training would support the long-term integration of the topic into education," says Paula Ittay Strobel Gallego.
In addition to the important contributions of the students, several staff members at KI have been involved in the work on the report. One of them is Marie Dahlin , programme director of the Medical Programme, who has also served as a faculty mentor. She expresses her appreciation for the students' commitment:
"I'm very grateful for the students' engagement in the PHRC. We're now planning a workshop on teaching and learning objectives related to sustainability and planetary health for this year's teacher retreat. It will be led by Karin Leander , the medical programme's coordinator for global and equitable care, together with students from the PHRC group. This is an important step towards more clearly integrating planetary health into the medical programme," says Marie Dahlin.
