The International Association of Universities is pleased to launch the third iteration of the IAU Global Survey on HESD. Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD) is one of the key priority areas of work of the International Association of Universities (IAU).

IAU supports higher education institutions (HEIs) in their endeavor to educate current and future generations, conduct research, engage with local communities, and transform their campuses into "green campuses" to reach the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), see: Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

About the survey

This survey is the third iteration of the IAU Global Survey on HESD. The first survey was conducted in 2016, the report “Higher Education Paving the Way to Sustainable Development: A Global Perspective” was published in 2017. The second survey was conducted in 2019; the report was published in January 2020 under the title: "Higher Education and the 2030 Agenda: Moving into the ‘Decade of Action and Delivery for the SDGs’". Both received much attention globally.

The survey uses the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs as a framework to foster better understanding of how HEIs engage with sustainable development (SD), how they work, who is working on this at the institutional level and which SDGs are mainly in the focus. Furthermore, the outcomes of the survey will be useful for HEIs engaging or wishing to engage with SD; and to advocate for the significant role of higher education in implementing the 2030 Agenda at the UN level and to national governments.

This third global survey will help showcase developments regarding SD in the higher education sector, and help universities implement good practices in sustainability.

The survey has been developed thanks to support provided by our partners:

● ASEF (Asia-Europe Foundation)
● Crue (Conferencia de Rectores de Universidades Españolas)
● MECCE (The Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education Project)

The data gathered will be presented in a comprehensive outcome report prepared by IAU and used by partners for further analysis. The report will be made available to the global higher education community in open access and initial results will be presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum 2022, and a first draft of the report in October 2022 at the IAU 16th General Conference.

Take the survey

Guidance for preparing and taking the survey

We recommend that only one response per institution is submitted, and that ideally, the person is familiar with the SD work at the institution (e.g. leadership, advisor, other). The questionnaire takes approximately 30 min to complete and is available in English, French and Spanish.

A preview of the questionnaire can be downloaded here.

Deadline to fill out the survey: 15 June 2022.

Please contact for questions: Isabel Toman, IAU Programme Officer, Sustainable Development ([email protected]).