January 31, 2023. The International Association of Universities (IAU) launched on the 1st January the Accelerating Action for the SDGs in Higher Education Report, which analyses the data collected for its third global survey on Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD), conducted in 2022. Crue Spanish Universities has collaborated with the IAU in the design of the survey, as well as in the analysis of the data and the elaboration of the report, under the coordination of the President of the Crue Commission for the 2030 Agenda, Santiago García Granda.
Overall, the survey collects data from 464 Higher Education institutions in 120 countries, including Spain. The results show that Higher Education and partnerships are fundamental to address the global challenges identified by the 2030 Agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as to build a more sustainable future for all. The report presents higher education institutions as uniquely positioned actors to foster commitment to sustainable development from an institution-wide approach and holistically encompassing the university’s missions.
As part of Crue’s collaboration, Santiago García Granda participated in the launch of the report and presented the specific results collected from 40 Spanish universities. In his presentation, he expressed his satisfaction for having participated in the working group for the elaboration of the survey together with the IAU, as well as for being able to participate in the launching event. García Granda compared the data collected in this third survey with that presented in the second iteration, collected in 2019/2020, and stressed the importance of providing universities with sufficient funding and staff to be able to make progress in the implementation of institutional strategies for sustainable development. Despite these difficulties, he stressed that Spanish universities continue to support the development of sustainable plans and are committed to advancing in their implementation.
Crue Universidades Españolas has collaborated with the IAU in the analysis of data for Spanish universities collected in the two previous reports:
- 1st IAU Global Survey Report on Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development 2017, Higher Education Paving the Way to Sustainable Development: A Global Perspective.
- Data analysis of Spanish Universities 2018: https://pre-crue.esferize.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20180424-encuestaods-crue.pdf
- 2nd IAU Global Survey Report on Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development 2019: Higher Education and the 2030 Agenda: Moving into the ‘Decade of Action and Delivery for the SDGs’
- Analysis of Spanish university data 2019: https://pre-crue.esferize.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200504_datos-Agenda2030-UE2019.pdf
Crue’s Commission for the 2030 Agenda. The Spanish University Community is highly involved in the monitoring and fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda and, consequently, with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since March 2019, Crue Universidades Españolas has established a specialised commission for the coordination of joint actions to ensure compliance with these goals and, at the same time, to promote awareness of the environment by the university community.
