Higher Education Institutions, UN Sustainable Development Goals, UN Millennium Development Goals, Assessment of Higher Education Institutions Contribution to UN-SDGs, Conceptual Framework, Novel System

Behind the paper

Genesis of UN MDGs and SDGs

According to [1] initially, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with eight goals came into effect, which were set by the 189 UN member states in September 2000 and agreed to be achieved by the year 2015. 149 international leaders in attendance committed to combating disease, hunger, poverty, illiteracy, discrimination against women, and environmental degradation. The following are the eight Millennium Development Goals: 1) to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger; 2) to achieve global primary education; 3) to empower women and promote gender equality; 4) to reduce child mortality; 5) to promote maternal health; 6) to fight malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases; 7) to promote environmental sustainability; and 8) to develop a universal partnership for development

According to [2], the MDGs have been superseded by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to [3] the ambitious 2030 Agenda of the United Nations was signed more than three [eight] years ago by most member countries. It comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which are universally applicable to all countries in the world. Recent UN reports indicate uneven progress towards achieving these goals in most countries.

Relationship of UN MDGs and SDGs Goals with Higher Education Institutions

During the survey and study process of published materials over the net, I have observed that the primary goal of the United Nations on sustainability and development is the survival of humanity. The goals recognize ending poverty as a priority, building strong economic development and implementation policies, strengthening the education and health systems, enforcing mechanisms for social protection, creating job opportunities, considering and implementing necessary policies on climate change and environmental protection, eradicating inequality between gender, caste, race, origin, disability, age, economics, and religions, and implementing policies to eradicate unsustainable consumption patterns, weak institutional capacity, and environmental degradation. In details about the UN-SDGs goals, their targets and issues are well defined in the UN-SDG 17 agenda.

As I have observed, higher education institutions (HEIs) will play a crucial role in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). Needs to integrate sustainability into curricula to build awareness and capacity for action on SDGs among students and faculty. Interdisciplinary research and innovation will contribute to sustainable development in all dimensions of life. Collaboration of HEIs with governments, NGOs, and industries to implement local and global sustainability initiatives.

Therefore, we urgently need to assess how much academic and research institutions are advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Some higher education institutions are very effectively implementing the UN-SDGs agenda in their campuses, teaching and learning, research and innovation, collaboration, and community mobilization.

Therefore, I have thought to write a research article in the same context. The research article is published and also indexed to ERIC, USA [4].

According to my research article [4], education is considered an integral element of sustainable development, and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on quality education is a key enabler for all other SDGs.

This is a project-based research article, and due to a lack of funds, I couldn’t yet implement it. However, if implemented, this will reflect how higher education systems are helping to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and their targets by 2030.

In this research article I have proposed a conceptual framework, novel system, method, and perspective plan for the assessment of higher education's progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The project has a provision to cover all public and private institutions inclusively across the country and to capture all activities pertaining to SDGs in terms of academic (teaching and learning including use of action-oriented transformative pedagogy, teacher capacity building from the perspective of SDGs and generating awareness among students by offering course and curricula), research and innovation, socially driven-impact projects, human resource engagements, activities pertaining to empowering and mobilizing local people, capturing institute graduates engagements in SDGs, best practices, case studies, formulation of new policy documents, and also to build inclusive network partners.   Therefore, educational officials, policymakers, educators, curriculum developers, and others are also called upon to rethink education in order to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. The project has a provision to provide a dashboard showing the achievements from an individual institution, state region, and country as a whole. The project has a provision to do some regular data analytics and to prepare, release, and share quarterly or half-yearly data on the dashboard and with different stakeholders, as much as possible, based on the ongoing process of information being captured, and the project will finally take the shape of a knowledge hub and a data service provider for different stakeholders.

Based on the outcomes and data analytics, the project will have a provision to suggest some strategies and planning pertaining to improvement in the existing teaching, learning, and pedagogy practices and employability in case of a shortfall observed institution-wise as well as country-wise in the higher education systems as evidence to further strengthen the real-world sustainability impact. The project will also have provisions for further encouraging teaching sustainable development across all disciplines, research and dissemination of sustainable development knowledge, green campuses, etc.

The project will have a provision to involve some students to work within the system throughout the project life cycle. Based on the research and outcomes pertaining to this project, there will be initiatives to publish some research papers in journals, newspapers, or other public sources. The project will provide a unique interface between institutions and policymakers, for the ministry, UN representatives, the common people, and researchers. The project will definitely be scalable and very applicable.

This project will have an integrated set of services for capturing, cataloging, storing, searching, protecting, and providing convenient access. The project will also build a bridge between science and society, engineering and society, and science and engineering. The project will be considered innovative in the sense of product innovation, process innovation, audience innovation, and technology innovation. The project will cover the following academic domains: social science, earth and agricultural sciences, computer science, natural sciences, biomedical science, medicine and medical sciences, law, architecture and regional planning, business management, and other socially relevant engineering, science, and social sciences. The project will also have many security and authenticity features. The project will also have many tailored-based features. The project will be considered an ongoing process of evolving knowledge and information resources and will not stop at any one point. But to evolve the information resource into a considerable shape, a minimum of three years will be required. This will include procurement, recruitment, development, testing, deployment, and the uploading of knowledge-based information resources and human resource data to their highest extent.

The said project will definitely serve as a potential project for all faculty, students, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, institutions, employers, industries, research laboratories, and common urban and rural people in terms of learning, adopting best practices, seeking help in their research from interlinked exploration from multidimensional information resources, and finally for the UN representatives in terms of the 17 UN SDGs and at the ministerial and institutional level in terms of progress of higher education systems in the area of UN SDGs.

This is a really fruitful initiative to regularly assess contributions and outcomes through higher education systems in any country for the SDGs. The same can be adopted and implemented by any country.

A framework for a novel system, method, and perspective plan is proposed below. (A set of activities in different colors categorizing the system boundary at the 1st phase and on later may further be expanded.)

Awards and Honors

In the field of SDGs, I was also invited to judge some projects across the world by the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2023, and I have gotten a letter of recognition for evaluating the projects as a judge of the panel.

References

1. MDG Monıtor. (2016). Category: Millennium Development Goals. (2016). MDG Monıtor. https://www.mdgmonitor.org/millennium-development-goals/
2. World Health Organization. (2018). Newsroom, Fact sheets, Detail, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/millennium-development-goals-(mdgs)
3. Tandon, R and Pandey, P. (2017). Disciplines, Professions and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Challenges in Higher Education in India. https://unescochair-cbrsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/guni_publication_implementing_the_2030_agenda_at_higher_education.pdf
4. Ali, M.G. (2022). A Novel System, Method, and Perspective Plan for the Assessment of Higher Education's Progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. International Journal of Educational Research Review. 7(4). https://eric.ed.gov/?q=Mohammad+Ghulam+Ali&id=ED638388