Unaligned connections or enlarging engagements? Tertiary education in developing countries and the implementation of the
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Unaligned connections or enlarging engagements? Tertiary education in developing countries and the implementation of the SDGs Elaine Unterhalter1 · Colleen Howell1 Accepted: 29 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Given that tertiary education (TE) is a sector often associated with exclusion, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where only a small proportion of the population gain access, how well placed is this sector to support the implementation of the SDGs? This article extends our reflections from a recent rigorous review of literature, published from 2010, which looked at the role of tertiary education in lowand lower-middle-income countries. The review noted the sparse literature on a range of development outcomes, with limited attention to some of the key themes of inclusion and sustainability associated with the SDGs. Many studies report on some form of limited connection between TE and development outcomes, also drawing attention to contextual conditions beyond TE that contribute to this. The article considers the reasons for these findings, and some of the difficulties of forming conclusions on a still limited base of research evidence. A second theme in the literature reviewed highlights that where TE establishes partnerships, engagements or cross-institutional alliances, joint and valuable learning in support of the SDGs ensues, enhancing practice and building institutions. Some of the implications of these findings for the positioning of TE in developing countries in the wake of COVID-19 are considered. Keywords Tertiary education · Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) · Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
This paper summarises and extends the work we conducted for a rigorous review of literature on the role of tertiary education and development commissioned by the British Council published in September 2020 (Howell, Unterhalter and Oketch 2020). We are grateful to the British Council for their support for that study and for permission to present some of those findings in this article. * Elaine Unterhalter [email protected] Colleen Howell [email protected] 1
University College London, London, UK
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Higher Education
Introduction Many commentators critiqued the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for limited ambition with regard to education, which constrained capacity to achieve the full range of goals (Jones 2008; Unterhalter and Dorward 2013; Fredman Kuosmanen and Campbell 2016). In the debates about the successor policy framework, leading up to the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tertiary education (TE) was promoted both as a target in its own right and as a means of implementation for many other goals (Boni, Lopez-Fogues and Walker 2016; Unterhalter 2019; McCowan 2019). SDG 4 expresses a vision to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ with the target for SDG 4.3 ‘to ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality techni
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