Integrating the United Nations’ sustainable development goals into a teaching–research nexus: examples from the University of the Sunshine Coast
D. İ. Kurtböke A *A School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), Maroochydore BC, Qld 4558, Australia.
D. İpek Kurtböke is an Assoc. Prof. in Environmental Microbiology at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. She has been a member of the European Actinomycete Group and has been associated with the international actinomycete research community. Since joining the UniSC in 2001, she has developed undergraduate and postgraduate teaching program, majors and minors in the field of applied microbiology and biotechnology, as well as conducting research in the fields of environmental, biomedical, agricultural, marine and food microbiology. She has also created a microbial library at the UniSC as a resource for teaching and research purposes. Her expertise in the microbial culture collections and their sustainable use for biotechnology subsequently linked her to the World Federation of Culture Collections and she is currently serving her second term as the President of the Federation (2021–2024). She is also a member of the Bacterial and Archaeal Viruses Subcommittee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). |
Microbiology Australia 44(3) 119-123 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA23035
Submitted: 3 July 2023 Accepted: 1 August 2023 Published: 21 August 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 constitute a ‘universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity’. The 17 SDGs are integrated and target the development of ‘balance social, economic and environmental sustainability’ and recognise that ‘action in one area will affect outcomes in others’. ‘The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources’ from every sector of the society are required for timely delivery of the SDGs. The major contributor into the generation of such ‘creativity, knowhow and technology’ are the higher education institutions (HEIs). This article will emphasise the roles of HEIs for the timely delivery of the SDGs with examples from the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC).
Keywords: global goals, HEIs, higher education institutions, Pasteurian pedagogies, SDGs, south to south cooperation, SSC, sustainable development goals, teaching–research nexus, University of the Sunshine Coast.
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