The SDG is the blueprint in achieving a better and more sustainable future. The initiative addresses global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.
“The initiative addresses global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.”
Universities from around the world who are committed to educating their students in these key issues are signing the Declaration on University Global Engagement, which is adopted on the SDGs framework.
The Declaration on University Global Engagement is a joint effort from the United Nations Institute for Training Research and the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities.
There are currently seventeen universities who are participating in the SDG initiative and only two universities in the UK: the University of London and the University of Manchester.
Frenie Hilado, an International Media and Communication student from the University of Nottingham, told Impact:
“This is something that our University should also be looking into. Educating students in such key issues can always prove to be very beneficial to our future.”
The Declaration on University Global Engagement expresses a commitment to global engagement through a series of actions, including:
• Developing the global competence of all students so they have the skills to productively engage with individuals from different cultural and national backgrounds.
• Increasing students’ understanding of the most pressing economic, social and environmental challenges facing the world today.
• Significantly increasing student physical and virtual mobility across nations so that many more students experience realities outside their domestic contexts and deepen their understanding of challenges and opportunities in other parts of the world.
• Committing to cross-border and cross-sector research, knowledge sharing and innovation in collaboration with institutions’ public and private stakeholders in pursuit of novel solutions to the SDGs.
• Communicating publicly about the progress and importance of higher education’s global engagement.
Sarah Lingärde
Featured image courtesy of Impact Images.
