Making universities work for the UN Sustainable Development Goals

WASD is very pleased to invite you to its 19th International Annual Conference and 10th Diaspora Annual Conference aiming to bring together academics, universities and research institutions from across the world to collaborate and reconnect with the discourse of Sustainable Development (SD).

We were hoping the conference will take place in London Face to Face at Queen Mary University of London following all the health and legal guidelines by the UK government but WASD is making all necessary preparations for running the conference online as the global pandemic lockdown continues across the world. As a result of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, for the first time since its inception WASD Conference were organised successfully in 2020 remotely via video conference technologies. In doing so, WASD will use the latest technology in video conferencing from London with participants from all-over the world connecting from homes.

The conference will critically address the question of how HEI can help countries achieve the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda and to provoke forward thinking on developing new methods and approaches to suit the challenges and opportunities of this new era of digital revolution. These new approaches call for actions to create different appropriate ways of doing things and of doing new things that will be essential to solve our future problems and help in the implementation of the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. Systematic search for opportunities is important for helping to ameliorate the many problems facing countries. We must therefore produce, consume and organise ourselves differently.

Participants are invited to address the following key issues in their contribution:

• how do you see the role of HEI in service of the 2030 Agenda and supporting and enhancing the process of economic and social development in their countries;
• do you believe that the HEI are properly using scientific research in finding solutions to global problems such as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic?
• identify all major obstacles that HEI face in their countries including any governments components and most importantly how can these obstacles best be overcome; 
• what is the new role(s) of HEI in the post Covid-19 era; and
• how do you reflect the SDGs in your own research activities?

The conference objective is to introduce a variety of fundamental perspectives on the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) (universities, colleges and research institutes) to help re-building the global economy and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SD). It is now clearly recognised that innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as being a central driver of economic growth, are also recognised as very important tools to help achieve SD. The conference is therefore aims to discuss and explore various approaches and different ways by HEI which can contribute to enhance and support entrepreneurship eco-system across the world and more specifically in the Developing Countries (DCs). Moreover, the conference aims to explore and critically analyse the current debates around the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in achieving SD.

Target audience: Academics, researchers, UN agencies, NGOs, civil society groups, women, youth, students, private sector, business, SMEs, government officials and agencies and other stakeholders. The conference is expected to brings together researchers, policy makers, educators, consultants and employers from around the world to exchange knowledge and experience and discuss recent developments and current challenges in both theory and practice. You can also browse sample of  our previous speakers here. The conference program will be published two weeks before the conference date and will normally be tentative and subject to changes due to the large number of participants. For a sample program structure, please check our previous conference programs.

The impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic global lockdown has led to record declines in gross domestic product (GDP) across the world in 2020. In the United Kingdom for example, according to the UK Office for National Statistics recent reports (2021), the UK has experienced the largest fall in volume or “real” GDP over Quarter 1 to Quarter 3 2020 of the G7 economies. However, with countries across the world taking different approaches, it is hard to make comparisons during this time but generally all countries are taking serious steps and initiative to reduce public expenditure and increase productivity. The multi-sectorial impact of Covid-19 on education is difficult to measure and it is clear that, today, more than ever before in human history, the wealth or poverty of nations depends on the quality of HE. Revolutionary breakthroughs in re-building the economy in the digital world will lead to remarkable changes in the way forward-looking nations capacitate their graduates. In this era of post Covid-19, all HE institutions cannot fail to realise, accept and accomplish its natural and ascribed roles as a strategic agent for national development. HE must confront new realities rapidly manifesting themselves in a diversely complex and fast-changing world. Business as usual will not suffice and therefore HE need to be expansively re-focused in order to become more sensitive and responsive to its mission of developing graduates and researchers who, in addition to conventional graduate training, are also able to fight the intellectual battle for self-confidence and self-assertion as equal players in the global and intensely competitive knowledge economy. It is therefore very important for all HE institutions to undertake robust national and international accreditation process. And although international accreditation opens more opportunities for any institution but both accreditations are of equal importance in their own aspects.

10th Diaspora International Annual Conference

Adopting a more holistic approach, the diaspora conference aims to provide a stimulus for knowledge exchange and discussion that focuses on issues relating to the role of diaspora in technology transfer (TT) and achieving sustainable development (SD) to critically examine the relations and links between diaspora and host countries, and attempts to outline policy and strategies to support the role of diaspora in developing, creating wealth and achieving SD in host countries. The conference also aims to learn lessons from the successful communities across the world and emulate the ideas and innovations of these communities by host countries.