This chapter delves into the significant role Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim of strengthening and refocusing…
Abstract
This chapter delves into the significant role Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim of strengthening and refocusing institutional efforts toward the 2030 Agenda and beyond. Acknowledging the limited progress made toward the 2030 Agenda, the chapter discusses the extent to which universities are meeting their social and ethical responsibilities in fostering sustainable development and human rights. Through an examination of the relationship between universities and the SDGs (including criticism of their role in reinforcing urban inequalities), the chapter articulates a vision for HEIs to embrace transformative partnerships, interdisciplinary approaches, and community engagement to rebuild public trust and reinforce their place as pivotal actors in driving social and economic progress. Three essential tasks for HEIs are identified: fostering SDG synergies, establishing trust and collaboration with local communities, and advancing a data-informed progress assessment that provides a roadmap for how to use the SDGs to further new agendas.
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Sam Vaghar, Summer Wyatt-Buchan, Shriya Dayal, Srijan Banik and Ayushi Nahar
Collaboration with student leaders is fundamental to the role of higher education in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In 2018, Millennium Campus Network (MCN…
Abstract
Collaboration with student leaders is fundamental to the role of higher education in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In 2018, Millennium Campus Network (MCN) and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) partnered to present the Millennium Fellowship. This semester-long leadership development program provides training, connections, and credentials to undergraduates advancing the SDGs. The Fellowship has rapidly expanded to draw over 25,000 applicants annually, with engagement on 136 campuses in 30 nations. This chapter unpacks how this program has grown through unique partnerships – with the United Nation (UN) and with universities. It also emphasizes best practices for how universities can support student leaders committed to the goals. Five best practices for collaboration will be shared:
Break down silos – Invite students to break out of their comfort zones, beyond campus, with discernment.
Prioritize mentorship (1:1 and peer to peer) – powerful faculty/staff–student relationships help students grow – and peer-to-peer mentorship builds robust communities of practice.
Align incentives for collaboration – from academic credit to seed funding, incentives can create an ideal environment for peer-to-peer collaboration.
Build virtual community – leverage technology to build cross-campus opportunities.
Centre-student voice – ensure students can co-create programs and opportunities.
To illuminate these points, we feature examples of Millennium Fellows’ experiences in the program. The prevailing theme that emerges: building processes that centre-students’ commitments and feedback builds trust and creates the foundation for dynamic partnerships to form.
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The profound impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are being exacerbated by political, economic, social, and environmental crisis and have set back almost all Sustainable Development…
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The profound impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are being exacerbated by political, economic, social, and environmental crisis and have set back almost all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to re-focus our energy to make progress according to the SDGs, education, research, innovation, and leadership will be essential in helping societies address the challenges outlined in Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. Universities, with their broad remit around the creation and dissemination of knowledge and their unique position within society, have a critical role to play in the achievement of the SDGs. Arguably none of the SDGs will be achieved without this sector. Engaging with the SDGs can also benefit universities by helping to demonstrate university impact, capture demand for SDG-related education, build new partnerships, access new funding streams, and define a university that is responsible and globally aware. This chapter’s thesis is that the SDGs will not be achieved without the strategic engagement by the academic sector and that aligning a university’s learning and teaching goals, research, and operational incentives with the SDGs can provide new opportunities and business models. The author will also provide background on higher education’s role in the formation of the SDGs and how this process has framed higher education’s role in achieving the SDGs.
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Susan T. L. Harrison and Maano Ramutsindela
A rich and productive history of collaborative research has given the University of Cape Town (UCT) many opportunities to observe the traditional workings of research partnerships…
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A rich and productive history of collaborative research has given the University of Cape Town (UCT) many opportunities to observe the traditional workings of research partnerships across all levels – and to recognise how new models of collaboration might better address the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Human needs are intertwined with a healthy environment and require specific policy interventions by various actors. Responses to COVID-19 demonstrated the significance of such interventions. The African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want (which is aligned to achieving the SDGs in Africa) notes the interrelated factors that can often only be analysed effectively through interdisciplinary approaches. In this chapter, the authors use case studies to argue that the minimum requirements for achieving the SDGs are: rethinking partnerships that support the socioecological systems on which life and the future of both humanity and the planet depend; adopting an approach that informs the management and governance of specific geographic areas and how the world and its millions of different communities work together to achieve those goals; and cultivating partnerships that are ‘Global South friendly’ with the objective of creating equitable societies at a global scale.
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Marilyn A. Brown, Jasmine Crowe, John Lanier, Michael Oxman, Roy Richards and L. Beril Toktay
Now more than ever, climate action requires both private and public investment in building a sustainable future for all. COP26 affirmed the importance of collective action at all…
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Now more than ever, climate action requires both private and public investment in building a sustainable future for all. COP26 affirmed the importance of collective action at all scales coupled with supporting public policy to limit global warming to a 1.5-degree trajectory. This chapter outlines the process and building blocks that culminated in the launch of the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact, whose mission is to leverage the collective impact of Georgia’s business community to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the state by 2050. In bringing together companies across diverse industries, the Business Compact creates a community of practice where cross-sector collaboration accelerates Georgia’s path to actualizing COP26’s decarbonization vision while also considering ‘beyond carbon’ issues such as the economy, equity, public health, and the environment. This is a regional and voluntary approach to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development), which recognizes multi-stakeholder partnerships as important vehicles to achieve SDGs.
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Tahl S. Kestin, Julio Lumbreras and María Cortés Puch
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly recognizing that their unique functions and expertise in research, education, and community leadership make them essential…
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Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly recognizing that their unique functions and expertise in research, education, and community leadership make them essential societal partners for helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the sector is not reaching its full potential, or acting fast enough, given the dire state of global progress on the SDGs. There has been a growing recognition that higher education’s (HE) ability to scale up action on the SDGs is hampered by a range of systemic and structural barriers within institutions, the HE sector, and the local and global contexts more broadly. However, many of these barriers and the potential solutions for overcoming them have been known for years, and a key challenge HE now faces is how to put these changes into practice. In this chapter, we build on insights from the work of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and others on system transformations for sustainable development, as well as our own work on HE engagement with the SDGs, to propose several ‘meta’ reasons that might be hampering efforts to scale up HE action on the SDGs, as well as some suggested approaches for addressing them. These approaches include treating HE as a system, defining better the outcomes we are aiming for, employing adaptive leadership approaches, and investing in genuine partnerships. While a detailed treatment of these approaches is beyond the scope of this chapter, we hope to encourage the HE community to look at this old problem in new ways.
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Luz Patricia Montaño-Salinas and José Manuel Páez-Borrallo
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation at universities and forced a rapid transition to online education. Tecnológico de Monterrey leveraged its experience…
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The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation at universities and forced a rapid transition to online education. Tecnológico de Monterrey leveraged its experience in online education to develop and scale a program of collaborative courses with international partners on the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The pilot program, based on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), and focused on the UN SDGs, aimed to provide international experiences to students who were not able to study abroad due to economic reasons (SUNY Collaborative Online International Learning). The formula involves two professors who co-design and co-teach an online subject or part of the syllabus to their joint cohort of students, highlighting the relevant elements associated with those subjects’ contents included in the UN SDGs. However, generating enough courses that reached a considerable number of students and involved an international diversity of partners and topics, added layers of difficulty. For instance, not all academics were prepared to manage an online joint group of students or to introduce concepts of the UN SDGs in their courses. To solve these problems and scale up these courses, we created ‘Global Shared Learning – Classroom’ a program that addresses the necessary elements of faculty matching, joint planning of subjects, online co-teaching, use of technological tools, and the active participation of students. Today we have involved more than 18,000 students and 500 professors from 150 universities. This chapter shows how capacity building and complementary partnerships were built. It includes the elements to design, replicate the model, and overcome technology issues for other universities asking to be part of this program.