The Impact of the SDGs on Donors’ Choices: Analysis of Trends and Types of Aid to Higher Education at the SDG Implementation Halfway Point

Savo Heleta, Logan Cochrane and Salwa Al-Mannai

Journal of Development Studies, 2025, vol. 61, issue 8, 1201-1220

Abstract: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been guiding global development agendas and shaping foreign aid priorities since 2015. While higher education is part of the broader agenda, the SDGs do not specify support for local systems and institutions in developing countries that require assistance. At the same time, the SDGs call for expansion of scholarship aid to enable citizens of developing countries to study in donor countries. Using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s aid flows data and focusing on types of aid and recipient and donor trends, we analyse aid flows to higher education to assess if the focus on scholarships has had an impact on donors’ choices during the first seven years of the SDG implementation. The findings show that the SDGs have had a fundamental impact on bilateral donors’ choices regarding the types of aid provided to developing countries, leading to the expansion of scholarship aid and a decline in aid to local higher education. Additionally, most of the aid was provided to a limited number of countries, leaving many behind in the process. If these trends continue until 2030, the world will see further widening of global inequalities in higher education and development in general.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2025.2456933

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