Real change?

A university degree has long been seen as a pathway to upward economic mobility, but its impact extends far beyond the success of individual students. Higher education is a big lever for sustainability overall. Nowhere is this more evident than in the SDGs, where quality education stands as the foundation upon which nearly every other goal depends.

Education doesn’t exist in isolation. A well-designed university system feeds directly into sustainable development: giving students the expertise to transition industries toward renewable energy (SDG 7), training policymakers to craft more equitable economic models (SDG 8) and conducting research that informs climate adaptation strategies (SDG 13).

When higher education succeeds in embedding sustainability at its core, the ripple effects touch nearly every sector of society.

“To solve wicked problems, we need to mobilise new knowledge through diverse networks and collaboration,” observes Valentina Tartari, a professor of innovative and sustainable business development at Sweden’s Stockholm School of Economics. “This will require a new set of skills, such as the ability to work across disciplines, to communicate to different stakeholders and to manage complex problems.”

Research has shown that sustainability-focused education leads to long-term environmental and economic benefits.

A 2023 study published in journal, Sustainability, found that education plays a direct role in cutting emissions in China, especially when paired with green innovation and strong government policies. In effect, a well-educated workforce is not only aware of sustainability — it actively pushes it forward.

Universities have also become key players in fostering or at least drawing attention to climate resilience. The Stockholm Resilience Centre has pioneered research on planetary boundaries. The framework, developed in 2009, identifies nine Earth systems that keep the planet stable. We have, sadly, already crossed six of them.

Such advances not only push the scientific frontier; they help shape the policies and business strategies that will define the coming decades. But sustainability in higher education is not just about climate solutions. Universities play an equally important role in fostering social equity. Education is one of the strongest predictors of upward mobility, and yet, access to higher education remains deeply unequal. Studies have shown that higher education can lead to better job opportunities and higher income, thereby contributing to upward social mobility.

But it is highly skewed towards students from higher-income backgrounds, since early socio-economic disadvantage in childhood leads to low levels of academic achievement.

Another challenge is that many universities still treat sustainability as an afterthought. Courses on the subject often remain siloed, with environmental departments disconnected from business schools and engineering faculties, for instance.

And while institutions pride themselves on producing world-changing research, much of it remains locked behind academic paywalls, inaccessible to the communities that need it most. Or in academic journals with a very narrow readership.

Higher education has the potential to be the backbone of sustainable development, but only if universities recognise their role as more than just knowledge hubs. They could become active agents of change — by embedding sustainability into every discipline, breaking down institutional barriers and broadening access to quality education.

“I see growing and heartening evidence of energy and new initiatives, often bottom-up, which are being taken forward with creativity, imagination and relevance, and which challenge traditional structures and work models,” says Stephen Sterling, emeritus professor of sustainability at the University of Plymouth.

He adds: “This means, for example, reorienting research priorities, forging and growing links across the university and involving students in designing the curriculum, often working in and with the community.”

Bridge or barrier?

Higher education is supposed to be a great equaliser, but in reality, it often reinforces existing inequalities. In rural areas, universities are physically out of reach. In low-income communities, tuition costs alone put degrees beyond consideration.

The numbers tell the story. In some nations, figures from the World Bank show the enrolment rate of the richest is exponentially higher than that of the poorest. In Mexico, the wealthiest students are 18 times more likely to enrol in university than the poorest. In sub-Saharan Africa, the divide is even starker: the richest 20 percent of households claim 80 percent of university spots, while the poorest 40 percent barely make up 2 percent of students.

Without intervention, sustainability solutions remain the domain of the privileged — designed by those who have access, not those who are directly affected.

Some universities are changing that. Instead of waiting for marginalised communities to come to them, they’re taking education to the people who need it most.

In India, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s Live-in-Labs programme sends university students into remote villages to co-develop sustainability solutions with local communities. From building water purification systems to deploying off-grid solar power, the programme empowers rural populations with the skills and technology they need to drive their own climate resilience.

And in sub-Saharan Africa, universities are dismantling one of the biggest barriers to education: cost. The African Leadership University, with campuses in Rwanda and Mauritius, operates on a low-cost, competency-based model, designed to make higher education accessible to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Annual tuition is approximately $3,000.

What this shows is that higher education has the power to bridge the gap between privilege and participation. “We cannot ensure that sustainability education reaches everyone, but those involved in this movement need to do all they can to take sustainability education – and climate education – forward,” says Sterling

“That means engaging with the national and international movement which is seeking to advance sustainability as a key purpose of all educational endeavours,” he continues. “There is a great deal going on, and the time is now.”

Yet, sustainability can’t be achieved in a vacuum. The most effective universities are building bridges — partnering with businesses, NGOs and policymakers to scale solutions and embed sustainability into global supply chains.

Take Harvard University’s Business and Environment Initiative. Instead of treating sustainability as an afterthought, it works directly with Fortune 500 companies to integrate climate strategies into corporate leadership.

In the Netherlands, Wageningen University & Research is setting the standard for agricultural sustainability, partnering with companies like Unilever to develop regenerative farming practices that reduce emissions and restore biodiversity.

And in Asia, the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Nature-Based Climate Solutions collaborates with nonprofits and governments to drive carbon sequestration projects across the region, capturing and storing atmospheric carbon.

“I think that one of the best ways to foster this collaboration is through the development of integrated learning programmes where students can work on sustainability projects directly with businesses,” says Tartari, at the Stockholm School of Economics.

“At the same time, it is good to involve business partners in the design of the actual curricula, to ensure that our graduates are equipped not only with the most relevant and up-to-date knowledge, but also with skills that are valued in business.”

The question is whether the rest of higher education will follow these examples — or whether sustainability will continue to be more of a discussion than a concrete priority.

Universities pride themselves on being engines of progress, but for too many people, higher education remains out of reach. Across the world, marginalised communities — such as lower income brackets and rural populations — face systemic barriers to accessing quality education. And without that access, sustainability efforts suffer.

Ultimately, sustainability is not just about technology, policy or corporate pledges — it’s about education, too. But systemic change doesn’t happen in isolation.

Governments need to invest in accessible, sustainability-driven education. Universities must break down barriers between academia and real-world application. And businesses and nonprofits must partner with institutions to scale solutions, not just research them.

“We aim at making a long-term, in-depth impact on individuals, but also their entire workplace; that’s the promise we make to our students,” says Kässi at Aalto in Finland.

Higher education’s influence on sustainability is, ultimately, being tested like never before. Universities have the tools, the research and the expertise to drive the solutions the world desperately needs. Yet too often, sustainability remains an afterthought — buried in elective courses, locked in academic journals or trapped in bureaucratic inertia.

Some institutions are proving that education can be a real lever for change. They are integrating sustainability across disciplines, forging partnerships with businesses and communities, and making sustainability education accessible to those who need it most.

The question is no longer whether universities can help shape a more sustainable world. It’s whether they will. Because in the end, sustainability can’t just be studied. It has to be lived, practiced and embedded into the DNA of higher education itself.