When a university made compassion a graduation requirement

30 July 2026

The 20 Years, 20 Wins series continues with a milestone that institutionalised the Caring for Life framework. This win isn’t just about an extension of how many people CFL reaches, but rather, who. #6 of 20

 

In 2020, Suzhou University of Science and Technology (SUST) integrated ACTAsia’s Caring for Life (CFL) curriculum into its philosophy degree, making it the first NGO curriculum built into mainstream higher education anywhere in the world. Students on the degree must complete a CFL module to graduate. 

A shift from children to the teachers who train them 

With Caring for Life education programme for children, ACTAsia had spent over a decade reaching primary school children directly, one classroom at a time. The SUST partnership works differently: instead of bringing CFL to children, ACTAsia applies the framework and philosophy to teach and train the people who will go on to teach them, for the whole length of their careers.

Two CFL modules – developed in collaboration with SUST’s course director and ACTAsia’s education experts and delivered together – were added to the coursework for SUST’s student teachers. They cover the ethics of life and how people relate to animals. In its first year, more than 60 student teachers took the course and since then, more than 500 have taken the course.

The university students who study CFL go on to teach Chia’s Moral Education syllabus, which is the closest equivalent to PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education) in UK schools, or health & social sciences in Canada or the USA. Once these students qualify, they will bring Caring for Life’s holistic approach to people, animals and the environment with them into every classroom they teach.

Why This Win Matters 

The mandatory status of the CFL courses is a huge part of the win. CFL isn’t offered at SUST as an elective, an optional extra for students who happen to be interested. Rather, it sits inside the philosophy degree on the same footing as every other course a student needs to graduate. SUST decided that CFL belongs within the formal training of educators, which is a different kind of validation than a school agreeing to run a programme, and clear evidence that the ideas behind Caring for Life hold up to academic scrutiny.

Until the SUST partnership, CFL’s reach depended largely on ACTAsia’s own footprint: the Pioneer Schools it partners with, the teachers it trains directly. Being built into a required course changes that. Every student on the degree completes the modules, not just the ones who seek CFL out. They don’t need to become a teacher at a Pioneer School, or ever work with ACTAsia again, for that foundation to show up in their classroom. It goes wherever they do, wherever they’re hired, into places ACTAsia may never have reached directly.

That is what mainstreaming looks like in practice: CFL is part of the foundation university students build their whole practice on, given to them at the same stage as everything else they learned to become a teacher.

Since 2020, that foundation has been compounding with every cohort that graduates, producing teachers who will carry Caring for Life’s philosophy into every classroom they stand in front of.

Want to see where compassion education goes next? Explore ACTAsia’s Institute for Change and follow along as the 20 Years, 20 Wins series continues.

If you would like to support the research and programmes behind Caring for Life, learn how you can get involved and consider donating today.