The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) convened a strategic debate this week on the important and unprecedented role of higher education in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Keynote speaker Eva Egron-Polak, the Secretary-General of the International Association of Universities (IAU), began the discussion by highlighting some of the key aspects of the new agenda.
“The SDGs are interconnected, and comprehensive. There is recognition that we cannot meet one goal without achieving the other goals. Education and research are essential to all SDGs,” she said. "For higher education there is a lot to be pleased about because the contribution of higher education to the SDGs is clearly recognized in the new agenda and higher education is included in the Education Goal (SDG4).”
A new opportunity for higher education
Unlike previous agendas – such as the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All – the SDGs explicitly refer to higher education as part of the vision for lifelong learning for all. Higher education plays a vital role in teacher training and other aspects of educational development, as IAU has been underlining, but more than that it can contribute to the advancement of all other goals, spanning health, gender equality, water and sanitation as well as industry and innovation.
The Education 2030 framework for action for implementing SDG 4, stresses the interdependency of all education levels, from pre-primary through to higher education, and formal and non-formal education.
While the new agenda is good news overall for higher education, Egron-Polak also raised some precautions and challenges ahead.
Challenge #1: Making higher education an integral part of the new agenda
The event stressed that higher education still has a way to go to become and be recognized as an integral part of the overall action plan for implementing the SDGs, and not simply one of the targets. As it stands now, Egron-Polak worried higher education’s inclusion in the agenda was little more than an afterthought.
To help address this, IAU has been advocating for broader recognition of the role higher education plays in research for planning, curriculum design, teacher training, evaluation and assessment, and IT use. Egron-Polak warned against perpetuating silos within both the education sector and within institutions.
Challenge #2: Mobilizing higher education institutions worldwide
Higher education institutions need to be both better informed and mobilized to engage in the overall SDG agenda and Education 2030. This is especially the case for universities in industrialized countries and for those not well-versed in the UN discourse and policy agenda circles.
“The SDGs are still insufficiently on the radar of higher education leaders in industrialized nations, and if they are aware of this agenda, it is often limited to issues of environment, greening the campus or climate change. The knowledge about Education 2030 is quite limited,” said Egron-Polak. “We need to build awareness and show in concrete ways how universities do and can contribute.”
Challenge #3: Turning goals into action
The third challenge, outlined by Egron-Polak, has to do with turning lofty goals and targets of this global agenda into meaningful and feasible strategies and actions at government and institutional levels. Egron-Polak took the example of target 4.3: “By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.”
To meet all three of these targets – access, affordable, and quality – she says countries and HEIs require different strategies shaped to respond to their unique obstacles and resources. For example, equal access may mean building physical or human capacity or it may mean overcoming long-standing exclusions based on language, disability, socio-economic background. Often it may mean a combination of both.
As the discussant to the presentation, Michaela Martin, IIEP Programme Specialist on higher education policy, planning and governance, spoke about some further implications for higher education that are related to the new agenda.
Developing national capacities
The universalization of secondary education will increase the pressure for access to higher education, as well as the need to further diversify higher education opportunities. “The emphasis on higher education as being part of a life-long learning system with multiple and flexible pathways will also increase the need to strengthen often weak national capacities for recognition, validation and quality assurance,” she said.
During a lively debate, participants emphasized the important potential of higher education institutions to contribute to the implementation of all SDG through their role of knowledge producers and educators of advanced human resource. It will be important to mobilize them for the new international development agenda and to make available funding for targeted inter-university cooperation.
Click here to view Eva Egron-Polak’s entire presentation, and here for highlights from our live-tweeting of the event.
