Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Higher Education

This special contribution to the GUNI World Higher Education Report 7 focuses on Integrating the SDGs in Higher Education.
There are five sections in this contribution. The opening section provides arguments as to why Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to engage with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It demonstrates practical ways in which HEIs can integrate the SDGs into their core functions of teaching and research.
There are also four sets of stories about HEIs that are contributing to four SDGs in four different countries and contexts. The first story is about water in Africa, and how research of the issue can enable contributions towards achieving SDG 6. The second story is about SDG 4, learning and teaching mathematics for children from low income households in rural Durban. Making Indian cities inclusive and inhabitable in partnership with local stakeholders is the focus of the third story—SDG 11. And SDG 8, focused on dignified employment for poor communities in Sardinia, Italy is the subject of the fourth case study.
While each case study stands on its own, describing teaching and research functions carried out in relation to that specific SDG, there are some common threads across these experiences that are illustrated in the opening section. We conclude with a series of reflections across all of the case studies.