WASD is very pleased to welcome to its SDGs Universities Initiative (SDGsUNI). SDGsUNI aims to bring together universities and research institutions from across the world in a global forum to collaborate and reconnect with the discourse of SD. SDGsUNI will therefore help universities and research institutions to play a critical role as recommended by the World Bank’s World Development Report 2016 enabling their countries reap the benefits form the global growth in the knowledge economy particularly for the country’s Digital Natives (Youth).
Since the Rio summit in 1992, (SD) is becoming increasingly a major concern for both Developed and Developing Countries (DCs). Yet, translating the principles of SD into effective economic and environmental policies seems to be a major challenge for all countries. In the post Covid-19 era of global skills and knowledge race, universities cannot fail to realise, accept and accomplish their natural and ascribed roles (also remotely) as a strategic agent for national development to achieve the UN 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs. Universities must therefore confront new realities rapidly manifesting themselves in a diversely complex and fast-changing world. Business as usual will not suffice. Universities need to be expansively re-focused in order to become more sensitive and responsive to its mission of developing graduates who, in addition to conventional graduate training, are also able to help their countries achieve the 2030 and its SDGs.
Building on this vision, LISD is proud to align its academic and research programmes with the core objectives of SDGsUNI. As a forward-thinking institution, LISD offers a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary programmes that equip students with the knowledge, skills, and global perspective needed to address today’s complex sustainability challenges. From sustainable urban planning and climate policy to digital innovation and social enterprise, LISD’s curriculum is designed to foster critical thinking, innovation, and ethical leadership. Through international partnerships, community-based research, and a strong focus on the UN SDGs, LISD empowers its graduates to become active contributors to inclusive, sustainable development both in the UK and around the world.
As knowledge production sites, the university’s engagement in national economic growth and the broader development agenda in its country is nothing new. Ever since the beginning of modern science, knowledge has been sought from the university and today, more than ever before in human history, the wealth or poverty of nations depends on the quality of higher education. Revolutionary breakthroughs in the knowledge economy are leading to remarkable changes in the way forward-looking nations capacitate their graduates. According to UNESCO, universities are not just for teaching purposes, but also contribute through research in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and in the social and human sciences, to the advance of knowledge, to the creation of new knowledge, to cultural development and fulfilment, to the solving of the problems with which the society is faced, to SD.
Whilst there has been a tremendous growth in size, the expansion of higher education (HE) in all parts of the world, serious evaluation must be undertaken of the quality of teaching, research and development (R&D) and how universities are meeting the emergent development needs. What is evident in most DCs is a stupendous replication of traditional disciplinary-based techniques of knowledge production. These have, nevertheless, increased the richness of knowledge about the universe we live in but without apparently translating or transforming the catchment societal environments in terms of measurable productive capacities.
There are also grave concerns that HE in most countries is becoming increasingly obsolete which, in part, is why development programmes are stultified even from the outset. There are also serious issues regarding the under-performance in research – state of academic research is less-than-satisfactory in almost all universities in DCs. Therefore, universities, particularly in DCs, must confront the ‘new realities’ evident in the environments in which they operate. Many scholars and policy makers have called for a transformative innovation agenda which embraces radical change for new synthesis and approaches for transforming universities’ role in achieving the SDGs in their countries.
SDGsUNI also aims to improve the research within universities to help achieve Agenda 2030 and SDGs by addressing the significant demand for evidence-based research across the world. SDGsUNI is therefore aims to provide practical recommendations and actions to help transform the way universities conduct and use research to achieve the SDGs, and the way universities access and benefit from the global data freely available for use by leading international organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, etc.
SDGsUNI will work closely with universities to address the following key issues in their contribution to their countries’ efforts to achieve the Agenda 2030 and its SDGs.
- how universities see the role of STI in service of the 2030 Agenda?
- how do universities reflect the SDGs in their own research activities?
- do universities believe that the HE system in their countries is properly using scientific research in finding solutions to the country’s problems?
WASD is very keen to engage and collaborate very closely with all universities and research centers from all-over the world. Our various global engagements and partnerships initiatives and activities together with our various partners across the world aim to strengthening these universities and research centers capabilities and capacities and enable them make big decisions. The purpose of our various collaborations and partnerships arrangements is to establish a relationship for interaction between WASD, SDGs Universities Initiatives, Middle Eastern Knowledge Economy Institute (MEKEI) and International Diaspora Project (SK) and governments and public sectors across the world. In these arrangements we plan to explore research and teaching; advisory; and consultancy services in areas of mutual interest and establish a framework between the parties that will facilitate future interactions. WASD has signed several Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with several universities and research centers from across the world. In these various MOUs and other collaborations arrangements, there is is no limit as to what WASD, can collaborate with other universities and research centers across the world. Please explore the various examples of our MOUs and contact WASD International Coordinator, Mrs Janet Snow (admin@wasd.org.uk) if you have any question regarding how to engage and collaborate with WASD. Below are few examples of some of our strategic partners from universities and research centers we have collaborated with in the past during various activities and projects.
- WASD delivers courses which are accredited by most countries’ ministries of higher education.
- In addition to distance learning mode of delivery, WASD also offers its programs/course face-to-face on weekly teaching blocks in the UK or overseas with additional supervision and assessment time designed to fit around your personal and professional commitments.
- There is also an opportunity for students to complete a higher degree with an advance standing by gaining exemptions based on Units studied on other programs/courses.
- Our programs have attracted top executives from more than 1000 governments’ agencies and companies around the globe and have attracted above 5000 participants from more than 40 countries.
- Our students include recent graduates, experienced professionals and people who are returning to education after a break.
- Most of our programs/course are delivered to students world-wide, entirely by distance learning techniques, using online communication, e-mail contact with tutors, supplemented by access to our comprehensive learning resources.