Back in October 2022, in the predecessor to this magazine, the Higher Ed Report, I used my introduction to compare universities’ initiatives around sustainability to the upkeep of bridges. At the time, we were launching QS’ first ever Sustainability Rankings, and my observations were simple: managing sustainability, like maintaining a bridge, does not always require going back to the very beginning and repainting it from end to end. Instead, where areas need attention and improvement, they need to be focused on.

In the 18 or so months since I wrote that, while I still stand by my reasoning, I think it’s now important to revise. Recently, headlines on higher education have rested in one of three dominant areas: attacks and criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion; the role of international students at university, in the community and in the workforce; and, artificial intelligence. There three areas, on the surface, don’t seem particularly related, but underneath, they share a commonality: what should our universities be and what should they do?

This question isn’t particularly new, nor are some of its parts. International education needs only to look back no more than a decade to recognise similar policies around restrictions to the flow of students. Looking at it from a social sustainability lens, though, if sustainability doesn’t require starting from scratch every cycle, and current pressures need more than spot fixes, how do we proceed?