scholarly journals Achievements and Challenges for Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Rapid Review of Media in Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 12888
Author(s):  
Inge K. Sonn ◽  
Marieta Du Plessis ◽  
Carel D. Jansen Van Vuuren ◽  
Janene Marais ◽  
Emma Wagener ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online News ◽  
Rapid Review ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Facilitative Role ◽  
Media Reports

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic struck globally and has affected higher education institutions (HEIs) and their operations, indirectly impacting the progress of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 achieved thus far. This article addresses HEIs achievements and challenges experienced in the wake of the pandemic. Online news media reports played a facilitative role in providing information to the HEI communities. A rapid review exploring online news media messages relating to higher education at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa was utilised. Narrative synthesis was used to analyse the data. The results highlight HEIs achievements, which aim to ensure that all students receive the same level of education and provision in terms of devices and mental health support. However, challenges were also experienced at HEIs and include students feeling uncertainty and fear regarding completing their education. Furthermore, the results also show that not all students received the same level of education due to contextual factors, thus deepening the existing social disparities in Africa. The pandemic provides an opportunity for HEIs to embed the components of global citizenship education into the curriculum and to work in an innovative way to promote Sustainable Development Goal 4.

scholarly journals News media attention in Climate Action: latent topics and open access

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahereh Dehdarirad ◽  
Kalle Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Open Access ◽  
News Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Topic Modelling ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Climate Action

AbstractIn this study we investigated whether open access could assist the broader dissemination of scientific research in Climate Action (Sustainable Development Goal 13) via news outlets. We did this by comparing (i) the share of open and non-open access documents in different Climate Action topics, and their news counts, and (ii) the mean of news counts for open access and non-open access documents. The data set of this study comprised 70,206 articles and reviews in Sustainable Development Goal 13, published during 2014–2018, retrieved from SciVal. The number of news mentions for each document was obtained from Altmetrics Details Page API using their DOIs, whereas the open access statuses were obtained using Unpaywall.org. The analysis in this paper was done using a combination of (Latent Dirichlet allocation) topic modelling, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis. The covariates included in the regression analysis were features related to authors, country, journal, institution, funding, readability, news source category and topic. Using topic modelling, we identified 10 topics, with topics 4 (meteorology) [21%], 5 (adaption, mitigation, and legislation) [18%] and 8 (ecosystems and biodiversity) [14%] accounting for 53% of the research in Sustainable Development Goal 13. Additionally, the results of regression analysis showed that while keeping all the variables constant in the model, open access papers in Climate Action had a news count advantage (8.8%) in comparison to non-open access papers. Our findings also showed that while a higher share of open access documents in topics such as topic 9 (Human vulnerability to risks) might not assist with its broader dissemination, in some others such as topic 5 (adaption, mitigation, and legislation), even a lower share of open access documents might accelerate its broad communication via news outlets.

scholarly journals Higher education and sustainable development goal 16 in fragile and conflict-affected contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
Sansom Milton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Violence Reduction ◽  
The Public ◽  
Resource Mobilisation ◽  
Liberal Peacebuilding

AbstractSustainable Development Goal 16 commits to ‘promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’. While the concerns of SDG16 with violence reduction, rule of law, and governance are relevant to all societies, this paper focuses on fragile and conflict-affected countries, many of which have the hardest task in achieving SDG16. It analyses how higher education can contribute towards—or detract from—SDG16 through teaching, research, governance, and external leadership. It then analyses four dynamics influencing the agency of universities in fragile and conflict-affected contexts in engaging with SDG16: resource mobilisation and the public good; securitisation; academic freedom, insecurity, and politicisation; and tensions between demands for localisation and the universalising logics of liberal peacebuilding models and the SDGs.

scholarly journals Support Mechanisms to Strengthen Equality and Non-Discrimination (EQND) in Rural Sanitation (Part 2 of 2)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Kohlitz ◽  
Naomi Carrard ◽  
Juliet Willett
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Rapid Review ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Disadvantaged Groups ◽  
The World ◽  
Support Mechanisms ◽  
Evaluation Information

A renewed focus on equity is being driven by the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation framework and Sustainable Development Goal 6.2, which emphasise the importance of adequate and equitable sanitation for all. However, as raised in Part 1 of this issue on equality and non-discrimination (EQND), there is evidence that CLTS processes for achieving community-wide outcomes are not always systematic, adequate, sustained, or sufficient to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups. A compilation of 50 CLTS and rural sanitation programmes around the world that significantly used support mechanisms was gathered to inform this issue. Our rapid review of the programmes found that although numerous trials existed, few had been taken to scale, few were located outside of Asia, and many did not have disaggregated monitoring and evaluation information that is publicly shared or collected at all. This issue therefore emphasises the importance of monitoring, evaluating and knowledge sharing processes in building an evidence base for facilitating equitable rural sanitation outcomes.

scholarly journals Education for Sustainable Development: Glocal Implications for Universities

2021 ◽  
pp. 4-13
Author(s):  
Lilia Raitskaya ◽  
Elena Tikhonova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Subject Field ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
University Systems ◽  
The Subject

The editorial overviews the key research aspects of embedding sustainable development into university systems worldwide. The JLE editors dwell upon the pivotal role of higher education in transferring knowledge, skills, and underlying values in promoting Sustainable Development Goal No.4 (Quality Education for Sustainable Development). The editorial analysis is underpinned by the most cited Scopus-indexed articles (Top-50 as of March 2021) on sustainable development in higher education. JLE potential authors will find some recommendations on the subject field gaps and key directions to be published in the journal upcoming issues.

scholarly journals The potential of health literacy to address the health related UN sustainable development goal 3 (SDG3) in Nepal: a rapid review

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shyam Sundar Budhathoki ◽  
Paras K. Pokharel ◽  
Suvajee Good ◽  
Sajani Limbu ◽  
Meika Bhattachan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Rapid Review ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Health Related

scholarly journals The Potential Impact and Influence of Private Higher Education Institutions in the Internationalization of Higher Education in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Prem Ramlachan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Life Long Learning ◽  
Potential Impact

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 advocates the need for inclusive and equitable quality education, which will promote life-long learning opportunities for all. Globally, however, the demand for access to higher education exceeds the places which are available, resulting in many students who cannot obtain places in institutions and in their respective programmes of choice.A case study research method was utilized, using a private higher education institution (HEI), referred to here as “Institution Y”. The empirical part of the search focused on engaging in dialogue with some of the directors based on their experience by retrieving information around the internationalisation of private higher education.South Africa, in its quest to be the preferred destination of choice to study and research, has to discover a working basis that is universal in its application. Arguments influencing inclusivity, equality and life-long learning focuses around conceptualisation, foot-printing and agility, surfaced in the study.The potential impact and influence of private HEIs on internationalisation of higher education can only be aligned with Goal 4 if re-conceptualisation, increasing the international footprint and agility, is driven aggressively for the greater good of the South African higher education.It is advocated, amongst other recommendations, that private and public higher educations be strengthened systemically in South Africa, so that it becomes the destination of choice for higher education to realise Sustainable Development Goal 4.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Hard Lockdown in South Africa: Lessons for Climate Stakeholders Pursuing the Thirteenth Sustainable Development Goal

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110439
Author(s):  
Eromose E. Ebhuoma
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Index Case ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Media Reports

As a result of South Africa recording its first COVID-19 index case in March 2020, the country imposed one of the strictest lockdowns globally. The lockdown unearthed vital lessons that climate practitioners both in South Africa – the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the African continent – and globally can draw from to facilitate the achievement of the thirteenth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13). Drawing on secondary data analysis of media reports regarding South Africa’s strategy to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on the hard lockdown, three themes emerged. These were rephrased to align appropriately with the discourse on climate change (CC). These include changing the distant framing narrative of CC, prioritizing green growth and utilizing credible messengers. Each theme is discussed critically in terms of how it will aid climate policy developers and practitioners in facilitating the attainment of SDG 13.

scholarly journals Quality and Equitable Access: Insights from Indonesia

2019 ◽  
pp. 12-13
Author(s):  
Elisa Brewis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Private Institutions ◽  
Equitable Access ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Policy Question

Sustainable Development Goal 4 calls for equal access to quality higher education. How this can be achieved in practice remains a major policy question. This article presents the case of accountability reform in Indonesia, offering insights as to how the twin policy objectives of teaching quality and equitable access can be addressed. Evidently, accountability mechanisms have empowered the state to regulate both teaching quality and equitable access. The key is holding both state and private institutions to account to maximize system-wide impact.

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