The Role of Sustainable Universities in Attaining SDGs

Over the past few decades, sustainable development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have gained immense importance in higher education. Numerous higher education institutions worldwide have pledged their commitment to sustainability by signing various charters and agreements. Approaching the deadline (2030) for achieving SDGs requires an innovative investigation of the efficiency of achieving these goals. This research aims to assess the aggregate efficiency of universities in achieving SDG 4 at the national level. Our research employs the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings dataset, the first comprehensive effort to measure universities’ sustainability impact worldwide. These rankings outperform the customary assessment of teaching and research, typically used in the World University Rankings, by accounting for 17 SDGs. Applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we look at the impact of aggregate university scores in achieving SDGs, the number of enrolled students, and government expenditures on tertiary education on the overall score in SDG4 that a country achieves. In this way, we assess how much sustainable universities have contributed to sustainable societies. Our approach adds value by evaluating universities’ sustainability efficiency, which is not typically done.