Higher Education Institutions and Sustainable Development Goals: A Content Analysis of Canadian Top Universities' Strategic Documents

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, Higher Education Institutions, Canada’s U-15s
Abstract Type: Virtual Lightning Paper Abstract

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have attracted tremendous attention and research since their adoption in 2015. The focus of existing research has mostly been on governmental efforts to engage with the SDGs. However, higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly coming on board to engage with the SDGs as well. To date, there has been no systematic attempt to investigate the ways in which Canadian HEIs are engaging with the SDGs. In response to this knowledge gap, this research seeks to understand the manner in which Canada’s top universities (i.e., U-15s) are engaging with the SDGs. Three specific questions are investigated; Why are universities engaging with SDGs? How are universities engaging with SDGs? What SDG priorities are being emphasized, and why? The participants of this research are Canada’s U-15s because they are the most research-intensive universities in Canada with an extensive global outreach. This research undertook a systematic content analysis of the Universities’ strategic documents on SDGs. Specific codes were developed for the analysis of the documents. The findings from this analysis show that the U-15s are all actively engaged with the SDGs in some way but that there are similarities and differences in how these Universities are engaging with SDGs. These findings are impactful for future research aiming to provide best practice recommendations to the U-15s, but also to Universities across Canada who are trying to engage better with the SDGs.