Abstract
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are not insulated from the challenges facing the planet and have been tasked as key stakeholders in sustainable development (SD). The preliminary data presented in this paper demonstrate that, over the last five decades, there has been a shift toward the categories of SD work that necessitate a collaborative culture that is not traditionally inherent in HEIs. It is offered that when HEIs align their institutional capacities with worldwide efforts to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030 and foster an intentionally collaborative culture, they will become better equipped to face their own unique challenges: becoming “changemaker” universities; collaborating with each other in the knowledge economy; placing students at the center of the teaching and learning process; and fulfilling their “third mission” to partner with external stakeholders and society. This paper will outline the conceptual frameworks used to direct the construction of Wingate University’s Collaborative for the Common Good (CCG). The preliminary data from this case study at Wingate University show promise; tracked impact reports show that an intentionally collaborative infrastructure that is designed to contribute to achieving SDGs provided a unique opportunity for this university to meet the needs of the campus and community despite their many social, economic, and cultural challenges that were exacerbated by COVID-19.
Highlights
Published: 24 January 2022In one of his first acts in the Oval Office, US President Joe Biden rejoined the ParisClimate Agreement because, despite being an onerous task, hitting the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 is vital to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established in 2015, by 2030 [1]
For Higher education institutions (HEIs) to follow suit, a conceptual framework is needed and became the central research question of this paper: which integrative framework allows HEIs to understand, design, and implement institutional pathways that enable the contributions to sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be foundational organizing principles for HEIs? To fully discover this framework, three interrelated questions include: (1) How do the commitments for HEIs that are emphasized in international declarations and sustainable development (SD) literature demonstrate a shift toward collaboration? (2) Which frameworks are Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
This paper presents a twofold scaffolded framework to offer both the “what”, i.e., the content for contributing to SDGs and the innovation of HEIs, as well as the “how”, i.e., the method for effectively achieving both of these goals
Summary
Climate Agreement because, despite being an onerous task, hitting the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 is vital to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established in 2015, by 2030 [1]. To meet this ambitious goal, all facets of society need to collaborate and contribute to the SDGs. President Biden took up this mantle and issued a new executive order that named our profound climate crisis as a central organizing principle for all governmental activities in recognition of both the severity of the problem and the opportunities for innovation that it presents. For HEIs to follow suit, a conceptual framework is needed and became the central research question of this paper: which integrative framework allows HEIs to understand, design, and implement institutional pathways that enable the contributions to SDGs to be foundational organizing principles for HEIs? To fully discover this framework, three interrelated questions include:
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