Speaker
Description
Wilson, A.
College of Education, Afaha nsit
abwilson65@gmail.com
Track: Digital Pedagogy and Teaching Innovation
Global stakeholders widely call on higher education institutions to contribute to global sustainable development by proactively aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At present, while universities and colleges have generally raised their awareness of SDG alignment, their practical actions remain uneven and fragmented. To address this issue, this study carries out original empirical research with two core objectives: first, to assess the level of SDG alignment across three dimensions, namely teaching, research, and institutional governance; second, to identify barriers to deep integration and propose a practical framework to narrow the relevant gaps. This study adopts a mixed-methods research design that combines surveys, textual analysis, and semi-structured interviews. Multi-stage sampling is used to ensure the representativeness of the sample, which covers respondents from different institutions and holding different roles. Quantitative data is analyzed via descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and multi-path hypothesis testing, while qualitative data is processed using thematic analysis. The study’s findings show that the curriculum dimension has the highest SDG alignment rating, with an average score of 3.61 out of 5, and digital infrastructure has the lowest score of 2.97 out of 5. The core barriers identified are structural silos, digital shortcomings, and leadership gaps. All four hypothesized paths passed the statistical tests, confirming the interactive effects across the studied dimensions. Finally, drawing on institutional theory and the dynamic capabilities perspective, this study puts forward a four-pillar SDG-HEI alignment framework, which provides evidence-based guidance for policy formulation at both the institutional and national levels.
Keywords: digital infrastructure, higher education institutions, institutional governance, SDG integration, sustainable development goals, sustainability policy, university curriculum