The Sustainability Issue
Revitalising the SDGs: What do Experts in Higher Ed Think We Should Do?
The deadline for the SDGs is sooner than we might think, and things aren't on track. Experts give their thoughts on the next set of goals.
By Deborah McAllister, Global Vice-President for CANIE and Laura Lightfinch, PR and Communications Manager at QS
As we move closer to the final years of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is clear the world is not on track to achieve these ambitious goals. None of the seventeen SDGs are on track to be achieved by 2030 and only an estimated 16 percent of targets are progressing (UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network). Challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, geopolitical tensions and economic instability, have exacerbated inequalities and hindered suitable and sustainable development efforts globally.
How these goals will be reframed in the coming years is yet to be determined, but the SDG framework has provided an umbrella for many sectors to enable the alignment and cohesion of strategies and initiatives across the globe. Many higher education institutions have adopted and embedded the SDGs in their operations, research, curricula and strategies. The education ecosystem has pivoted towards embracing these goals which is also reflected in the generation of students who are entering our institutions.

“The narrative about sustainability has increased in prominence alongside – and sometimes overshadowing – the SDGs, reflecting the urgent and interconnected challenges posed by the combination of complex objectives articulated in the SDGs"
88 percent of prospective international student say that environmental sustainability is important to their decision-making (QS International Student Survey 2024) and 77 percent think it’s important that a university takes steps to reduce their environmental impact (QS Student Sustainability Survey 2024).
Corey Peterson is Chief Sustainability Officer at the University of Tasmania. Speaking to QS Insights Magazine, Corey says: “The UN’s SDGs are a great framework. They show how different elements in the world tie together and the prioritisations that we need to focus on. For that reason alone, they are incredibly valuable and have opened doors to conversations across many sectors.
“However, I think the chances of us succeeding in many of them are very low, especially with the political challenges taking place around the world. The SDGs are a product of their time and have been the lowest common denominator to enable every country to buy into them, but they are relatively silent on indigenous and aboriginal cultures and incredibly binary, which is a serious flaw in them.
“I think a revamp or a critical evaluation of goals in 2025 would strengthen them to refocus people’s engagement with them."
Aligning sustainable goals with today’s workforce
The narrative about sustainability has increased in prominence alongside – and sometimes overshadowing – the SDGs, reflecting the urgent and interconnected challenges posed by the combination of complex objectives articulated in the SDGs.
Aligned to this, sustainable-focused jobs and green skills have also gained prominence. While there are many definitions, green skills are widely referenced as the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society (which reduces the impact of human activity on the environment). These can be applied to any area of work and are often attributed towards green jobs – roles that contribute to, preserve, or restore the environment.
However, most jobs requiring green skills are no longer traditional sustainable jobs within industries like environmental science and engineering. These skills are increasingly being sought across the workforce, and they are in short supply.

Job postings for green jobs are growing nearly twice as fast as the number of workers with the skills to fill them. By 2030, the World Economic Forum predicts there will be 24 million green jobs globally, but by the same time one in five jobs will lack the green talent to fill it, according to the LinkedIn Green Skill Report 2024. By 2050, this gap will balloon to one in two jobs.
Peterson says: “10 years ago, sustainable careers were about technical skills to develop engineers, environmental scientists and energy technicians – roles in environmental fields. The career space is very different today and sustainability is embedded in every field. There are many roles now which require negotiation skills, creativity and teamwork to think critically about solutions to the world’s problems.
"Added to that, more and more students are showing that they want to work in organisations and businesses that align with their values, and a lot of those values are based around sustainable outcomes. Students need to feel like they've been empowered and feel like their ideas and thinking have actually helped to deliver something. Then they can take that out into other places and help to deliver change on a bigger scale because of the possibility they felt as part of their university experience.”
Despite the challenges in fully achieving the SDGs, the foreseeable future of the workforce remains centred around green skills. The higher education sector must strengthen the alignment between developing green workforce capabilities and the wider aims of the SDGs to create a more environmentally and socially sustainable world. By doing so, universities can ensure that graduates are not only prepared for the green economy but are also equipped to address the interconnected global challenges outlined by the SDGs, creating a holistic approach to sustainable development.
Placing green skills in the curriculum empowers universities to produce future-ready professionals equipped to lead in the transition to sustainable economies, addressing urgent global challenges like climate change and resource management while driving innovation and equity in the workforce. The CANIE Accord provides a roadmap for organisations in the international education sector to step up and act on the climate emergency.

Who decides what is good?
The higher education sector has the opportunity – and bears significant responsibility – to shape a more environmentally and socially sustainable future for all. It is often argued that SDG 4 (Quality Education) underpins each of the other goals as without it, the vision of a sustainable future cannot be realised.
“There is a lot of talk about SDG 4 (Quality Education) underpinning the other goals, but whose idea of education is underpinning everything?” asks Professor Mia Perry, Co-Director of the Sustainable Futures Global (SFG) Network and course leader of the MSc in Education for Sustainable Future at the University of Glasgow.
“What is good in terms of education, or sustainability or equality is not universal and one of the biggest, most fundamental problem with the SDGs is that, like so many global initiatives, we assume that we all share the same perspectives. I think the SDGs, and other universal literacy programmes with the idea that ‘we’ve got the answer for everyone’ will always serve those with decision-making power and fall short for the people who were never at the table in the first place – often those most affected by climate and social issues.”
Emerging technologies and the role of AI
The Lund Centre for Sustainability Studies at Lund University has conducted a ‘Global horizon scan’, surveying 800 experts around the world on their top questions related to the UN’s SDGs after the 2030 deadline. Professor Emily Boyd, the centre's director, says of the project: “In collating the top 100 questions on the future of the UN’s SDGs, the headline findings are that the goals aren’t perfect but at this stage, is it better to extend and tweak rather than reshape?
“Some of the questions we’ve received the most have been about emerging technologies and how the SDGs could consider the role of AI and new technologies in supporting or undermining the goals,” she says. With the emergence of AI tools into the mainstream in the past two years, the topic has been hot on the agenda of higher education institutions as the sector has been thrust into embracing the technology.
As most sectors harness AI technology to create better efficiencies in the workplace, AI is emerging as a significant contributor to the energy crisis. The AI industry could consume as much energy as a country the size of the Netherlands by 2027, a new study at VU Amsterdam warns. This concern is clearly on people’s minds as the 2030 deadline to meet the UN’s SDGs comes ever closer. If emerging technologies are to be integrated into the SDGs then we must also ask the question, does the carbon cost outweigh AI's benefit?
Building intersectionality into the goals
When it comes to measuring the goals individually, Professor Boyd adds: “Universities and more widely, businesses and organisation, often choose maybe three or four of the SDGs to focus on, but this isn’t the way we live and act in the world. Life is interdisciplinary, so the SDGs could do better at being more aligned between the goals.”
For Jamie Agombar, Founder and Executive Director of Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK), the ability to ‘pick and mix’ the SDG goals is one of their downfalls, enabling selective action which can lead to greenwashing.
“The fact that the SDGs are so broad means that everyone can contribute in some way, but the thing is you can't take some of the goals in isolation. You see organisations saying ‘look we’re doing all this great stuff’ but in reality, it accounts for 5 percent of what they’re doing and the other 95 percent is causing harm. We cannot progress one or two SDGs at the expense of all the others,” he says.
“I think the SDGs should be liberating our sustainability teams from Estates and making it core business. Everything we do should be underpinned by the SDGs – spanning research, teaching, endowments, landholdings, estates, the whole lot. That doesn't happen that often.”

Co-creating a sustainable future with our youth
Many universities are embedding the SDGs into the curriculum and enabling students to complete core sustainability modules throughout their study and even co-creating sustainable experiences with students through student-led projects and initiatives. This supports graduates to be ready for work by learning to explore and articulate sustainable skills and their application.
SOS-UK is a student-led education charity focusing on sustainability, which believes that environmental sustainability cannot be achieved in isolation, so work is undertaken across issues of justice and wellbeing as well as environmental sustainability.
Agombar says: “Our education systems align with our economic systems, not our natural systems, and so most of the young people who come out of the education system become part of the problem, not the solution. There are amazing environmental charities constantly fighting bad decisions made by extraordinarily well-educated people. Wouldn't it be nice to break that cycle by ensuring that young people turn out as part of the solution in supporting the SDGs?
“At SOS-UK, we’re trying to repurpose the education system so that the next generation does a much better job than the current generation. Young people today have much better ‘pester’ power and everyone in power knows young people, so if we get this right and integrate solution-centred sustainable education where young people learn across all disciplines and feel empowered to take action, hold adults to account, and when they actually take the reins of power and assets, they'll do a much better job.”
Emphasising partnerships for the goals
According to Professor Perry – and many leaders within the higher education sector – SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goals) is the most important goal which has a role in every other goal. Professor Perry says: “My hope and purpose is around ethical partnership practices, and I think that the international higher education sector has a lot of capacity to do better at partnering with other organisations, but also potential learners. To me, that is a fast route to making a huge difference.
As a professor at the University of Glasgow, she adds: “Ultimately, the beneficiaries of the UK’s investment in International Development through research through education, the beneficiaries are first and foremost the people in the UK. To shift that would be a huge step forward. It would enable our work to make a more substantial difference. It would enable the practice of ethical partnerships to be more genuine and I think it's within the capacity of higher education to do that.”
The role of universities as a catalyst for change
As we approach 2030, the urgency to revitalise the SDGs becomes even more pronounced, and the role of higher education institutions in this effort cannot be overstated. Universities are uniquely positioned to shape the future, not only by educating the next generation but also by fostering innovation, critical thinking, and ethical leadership. The challenges facing the SDGs are complex, yet the collaborative potential of the higher education sector—through partnerships, curriculum integration, and student empowerment—offers a path forward.
By aligning academic programmes with green skills and sustainability, and fostering a culture of co-creation and ethical collaboration, universities can help bridge the gap between ambition and action. The responsibility lies with us to ensure that education serves as a powerful tool for achieving a more equitable, sustainable, and just world.