Aligning higher education with the United Nations SDGs
07 Oct 2023 7 mins Download PDF
Aligning higher education with the United Nations SDGs
NEP 2020 and SDGs:
- SDGs are a matter of urgency that requires actions by all countries, both developed and developing, to end poverty and other socio-economic and environmental problems.
- It requires aligning of strategies that will improve the standard of life and education, reduce inequality, and harness economic growth.
- The SDG Report 2023 has flagged slow progress in the achievement of the set targets and expects the similar trend due to prolonged effects of COVID-19, impacts of the climate crisis, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and a weak global economy.
- SDG4 pertains to access to quality education, which acts as a prerequisite for the achievement of other goals.
- the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was India’s accelerated efforts to ensure the achievement of SDGs for equitable and inclusive education.
- Though NEP 2020 calls for changes at all levels of education, priority should be given to higher education as it leads to
- Accelerates social mobility
- Empowers people through creativity and critical thinking,
- Grants employment skills.
- According to OECD data: People with a higher education degree are more employable and earn an average of 54% more than those who only have completed senior secondary education.
- Thus, university-inclusive education can:
- Protects people against poverty (SDG1)
- Prevents them from hunger (SDG2)
- Supports them for good health and well-being (SDG3)
- Promotes gender equality (SDG5)
- Provides them decent work, which in turn drives economic growth (SDG 8)
- Reduces inequalities (SDG10).
Areas requiring improvement:
- Improving research-teaching nexus in universities
- This can enable students to become direct benefactors of the knowledge generated from research.
- Need for Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary systems of education
- This will produce multitalented people who can pursue research
- They can also find innovative solutions to global challenges such as
- affordable and clean energy (SDG7)
- sustainable cities and communities (SDG11)
- climate change and global warming (SDG13)
- studying their impact on an economy and the earth.
- Development of innovative solutions and start-ups (SDG 9) in collaboration with private companies.
- Introduction of Value-Based Education (VBE) which shall help citizens to become responsible towards self, society, and the planet and help our nation achieve “Life on Land” (SDG15).
- Besides ranking universities according to the achievement of SDGs, efforts have to be made to educate and orient stakeholders of higher education towards SDG agenda.
- Creating a culture in universities that focuses on
- Community health
- Energy-saving measures
- Efficient resource allocation
- Waste reduction
- Development of local skills
- Sharing of services, infrastructure, and facilities with other universities or external partners
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