National Context Impacts on SDG Mapping Needs and Approaches in Higher Education, a Tri-National Comparison

Morgane Bousquet (), Ashley Byrne, Daniel Forget, Georgina Gough, Louis-René Rheault, Stéphane Roche () and David Siaussat
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Morgane Bousquet: Département de Génie Civil et Génie des Eaux, Université Laval, Pavillon Adrien-Pouliot, 1065 Avenue de la Médecine, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Ashley Byrne: Institut en Environnement, Développement et Société (Institut EDS), Université Laval, Pavillon Alexandre-Vachon, 1045 Avenue de la Médecine, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Daniel Forget: Vice-Rectorat Aux Affaires Internationales et au Développement Durable, Université Laval, 2325 Rue de l’Universite, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Georgina Gough: Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
Louis-René Rheault: Vice-Rectorat Exécutif, Université Laval, Pavillon des Sciences de L’éducation, 2320 Rue des Bibliothèques, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Stéphane Roche: Institut en Environnement, Développement et Société (Institut EDS), Université Laval, Pavillon Alexandre-Vachon, 1045 Avenue de la Médecine, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
David Siaussat: Institut d’Ecologie et Sciences Environnementales de Paris, Sorbonne Université, 1 Rue Victor Cousin, 75005 Paris, France

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-23

Abstract: Since 2015 and the Paris Agreements, several countries have committed to sustainable development (SD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have an important role to play in providing education and supporting research activities that integrate SD and SDG concepts. However, the context where the HEI is located has an impact on the level of development and integration of strategic guidelines, methods, and tools for measuring the performance of SDGs within the HEI. The United Nations framework remains the most developed and used tool, but it stays very global and needs to be adapted to other contexts, which leads to local initiatives by some HEIs in developing their tools. The response of HEIs to this challenge differs from one context to another, and this article aims to (i) provide a framework to analyze the different HEI contexts based on their own global, national, and local context; (ii) present and compare the context analysis of three different HEIs (ULaval, Sorbonne Univ, and UWE) in three different countries worldwide (Canada, France, and England), and (iii) discuss the limits, challenges, and research opportunities in the subject of SDG integration within HEIs. Notably, the context analysis of ULaval and UWE case studies showed that the Canadian and UK scales give global orientations with a delegation to the Quebec Province and England government for the education and research strategies. A strong leadership comes from the HEIs themselves in developing their own methods and tools for assessing and monitoring the SDGs, as is the case with ULaval and UWE. On the other hand, the Sorbonne Univ case follows the French national and European-United Nation framework but is less committed to developing its own tools and methods.

Keywords: sustainable development; sustainable development goals; SDGs tools; national guidelines; comparative context analysis; HEIs leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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