Universities Play a Strategic Role in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Emerging Nations
Driving the SDGs in Emerging Economies is the burden of University Systems.
Since the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were announced and adopted by world leaders in September 2015, have you wondered who is responsible for being the driving force to accomplish them? As an educator in higher education, meeting Goal #4 for education and, specifically, SDG 4.3 for higher education requires many learning sectors.
The primary ones are the institutions of higher learning globally. Mobilization of SDG #4 and #4.3 is a critical undertaking for higher learning systems in emerging economies.
SDG 4.3 — By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.
Higher education, at the level above secondary school, is often a privilege in many emerging economies. The more affluent family will send their child(ren) to finish their education outside their home country. On occasion, they allow their child to attend a private university in their home country that is well established.
For the average or working-class family, their child(ren) will spend countless hours in terms of weeks, months, or even years searching and applying for scholarships to gain a foreign education. Often, when a country’s youth leave for their educational pursuits in another country, it creates a knowledge gap.
The gap comes from the country nationals not returning, thereby leading to a “brain drain” — the common terminology used when outstanding and bright students leave to pursue education and career outside of their home country.
From my perspective as a higher education administrator, UN SDG 4.3 is about higher education going from paper to action to directly tackling this issue. Goal #4 seeks to retain bright, ambitious, knowledgeable students while providing access to many others who would not otherwise have access, like women or financially impoverished students.
Many students want and desire a university degree as it increases their earning potential and ability to elevate their family’s economic status. However, such opportunities are not readily available in economically developing nations. Furthermore, the ongoing health pandemic exposed the greater inequalities and the need to transform higher education to be more accessible.
Therefore, there needs to be a concerted drive to improve the tertiary education systems with intentional design and implemented program development to meet their burden of creating substantial education locally.
Based on my experience working in international higher education in emerging countries, these are my thoughts on nine ways universities and the tertiary education system in these countries will need to carry the burden of designing the pathway for the SDGs in their nation.
However, meeting the SDGs for higher education in developing countries requires an improvement in the higher education systems in these countries. The systems can undertake their full responsibility with support in the areas of funding, prioritizing part of a political mandate, and gaining support from the private sector.
Once education becomes a mandate, universities can start outlining key strategies similar to the ones mentioned here.
First, it will require recognizing the research that is currently being done at low or limited levels. Expanding research efforts into education redevelopment is crucial to growing further.
Second, it is a valuable skill-building benefit to incorporate student-centered principles into the philosophy of higher education. Build skills in the areas of critical-thinking, problem-solving, group leadership, accountability, reliability, and flexibility.
These life skills help enable lifelong learning and build resilience. Skill-building of this nature is generally found in a liberal arts education framework.
Third, build and incorporate entrepreneurial practices in the education system and models of higher education. In the emerging nation, funding and support of new ventures will help build the local market sector, provide local solutions for local challenges, and create employment opportunities.
Fourth, improving the infrastructure of technology in the country and at universities will help improve SDG #4 — education and several of the other SDGs that relate to economic development.
As higher education seeks to add computer science, information technology, telecommunication, and similar academic units, poor connectivity will lead to slower development. The technology sector for education or business can lead local development with the partnership of external investment.
Fifth, the university system has moved beyond the familiar and popular law, accounting, finance, and engineering degrees. With globalization and emerging technology in computing, currency, medicine, and more, emerging nations are risking being left behind if they do not add relevant degrees to their curriculum that could meet the needs of their nation.
Another strategy in many countries is to help meet the growing concern about global food insecurity. Adding degrees in agriculture or agricultural innovations in emerging countries with landmass and capacity is another way universities can serve by meeting their country’s needs while helping others.
Whether it is science, technology, or agriculture, the university systems will need assessment and data collection processes that will help them in making decisions for the educational direction of their country.
Assessment, in conjunction with earlier mentioned research efforts, will be a key strategic factor in building stability and sustainability in education for growing countries.
University-level education and faculty are the drivers of improving assessment or developing it where it does not exist by ensuring that research is a component of all levels of tertiary education.
Most bachelor levels do not require research but exploring such options provides skills and opens doors for developing innovations at all levels of higher education. Adding research-based classes and a capstone project could help bachelor-level students generate ideas and solutions for local challenges.
Sixth, higher education institutions and systems need to abandon the silo mentality at all levels of the organization — faculty and administration need each other to grow and develop. Using a cross-discipline or interdisciplinary approach in the curriculum can lead to innovation when joining principles, practices, and theories for adjacent or even opposing subject areas.
Math is not for accounting, finance, or engineering; it is also part of emerging technologies like 3-D imaging and printing, computer programming, and artificial intelligence.
Having the administration take a collaboration and partnership approach will improve operations management. Last, circular and co-circular programs must join forces to educate the “whole” student with theories, practices, and life skills, then drive their economics with local talent who understand the context when seeking to solve local issues of resource management.
Seventh, training and development of faculty and staff are as necessary as teaching students. For any university to maintain continual developmental growth, the university’s human capacity also has to be learners.
When those who teach and administrate the operations of the university are also growing, they can contribute to the economic growth and development by their ability to expand the sphere of impact sectors beyond the university, thereby supporting other sustainability goals.
Eighth, it is imperative that private and public universities collaborate in this process of expanding education to all. Of equal importance is the contribution of the governments of emerging developing countries to their higher education sector and its transformation in Africa, South America, or regions of South and Central Asia.
The higher education ministries have to become a driver for budgeting, setting standards, supporting partnerships, and leading the charge for inclusion toward the sustainability goals.
Last but not least, universities in emerging countries have to develop the proper pipelines to the university system to achieve sustainability. It means that they have to collaborate and cooperate in a concerted effort with secondary and primary schools to have students achieve the appropriate standard of education making university education accessible to a larger number of students.
Additionally, the removal or minimization of a single gateway exam in lieu of a more holistic assessment of a student’s academic credential and potential as part of the application process from secondary school will open doors for students who are challenged by exams. — These types of changes make the university accessible to all and not just the elite.
It may include adding teacher training programs or more education degrees to their curriculum. Another partnership might be using the co-circular program to support tutoring, mentoring, and earlier leadership development in the primary and secondary programs.
Universities are the Catalyst for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Many of these countries that have experienced a “brain drain” will need additional pipelines to reverse it. Opportunities for teaching, research, start-up incubators or accelerators could help university systems build and advance. In other words, enticing nationals to return and work using government or private foundation funding creates a platform for the diaspora to build affordable education at home.
Another resource can be charitable organizations creating opportunities for nationals in the diaspora to return home and develop their education system, thereby building their country.
It is the use and knowledge of returning nationals who already understand some of the local contacts but now can infuse an educational perspective from their experiences living in various western-based or eastern-based countries into their home countries to create developmental economic stability.
These are the type of actions that lead to long-term sustainability and growth, not just in education but also in other sectors of the economy.
Universities play a crucial role in helping to create meaningful work in a society. Not only do they contribute to students obtaining careers, but they also provide the opportunity for those with careers or marketable skill sets to create entrepreneurial ventures for populations that did not have the opportunity to attend.
The positive impact in the creation of meaningful work for individuals who did not have the same opportunity as them. This creation of meaningful work as a result of entrepreneurship support SDG #8 of decent work that leads to economic growth.
One of the ways universities can create opportunities for themselves and their students to meet the sustainability goals is by partnering with universities globally that have already created a level of effective research in teaching and learning.
These universities are often classified or ranked as top-tier universities globally by the common ranking entities. Either creating a memorandum of understanding for dual-degree education or an exchange program virtually or physically would be an excellent way to strengthen existing degree programs or introduce a new one.
Local institutions can also seek to bring various academic programs or certifications from compatible and credible universities to their country and substitute as an adjacent curriculum to what’s already been taught.
Even fostering and introducing outside educational sources into a country requires it to be adapted contextually for the environment and experience of that country to have a growth trajectory as a nation.
The success of a higher education transformation significantly impacts many of the seventeen (17) SGDs. However, it will be demonstrated in thier outcomes through the following three (3) Sustainable Development Goals.
In closing, based on my experiences working in three developing or emerging nations, these were my observations and thoughts. Sustainability is not just about education SDG; it’s also about the other SDGs.
Therefore, universities play a vital role in supporting their own SDG but ensuring that the other adjacent SDGs also gain support from the education system, which allows for their realization and actualization. SDG #4 is what is taught in the classroom, but it goes well beyond.
On the whole, in many emerging nations, universities have largely underestimated their role as a crucial resource of knowledge builders and disseminators regarding seeing the Sustainable Development Goals come to reality.
If you are a higher education institution or organization seeking to work on the SDGs and need assistance in the area of student engagement, student-centered principles integration, or staff training, connect with me or view our website for consulting resources.
