Universities need to move from ‘symbolic’ to real SDGs – Study

There is growing institutional engagement with sustainability agendas in Arab Gulf states, but implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains largely shaped by global ranking frameworks and policy imperatives, with only limited evidence of substantive SDG localisation.

Higher education institutions often default to technocratic SDGs concerned with clean energy, infrastructure, innovation, and avoid politically contentious domains such as equity, labour, and participation, reinforcing a pattern of “safe sustainability”.

Recent Academic Freedom Index data shows how low the level of de facto academic freedom is across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which “plausibly dampens critical inquiry and civic-orientated SDG work”.

These are some of the main messages that emerged from a study that focuses on distinguishing “the visibility of SDGs engagement from its substantive depth, whether reported commitments are accompanied by evidence of organisational change rather than ceremonial alignment”.

‘Meaningful localisation remains limited’

The study was carried out by reviewing publicly available global SDGs ranking data and institutional documents communicating universities’ sustainability activities from university websites, newsrooms, newsletters, annual reports, sustainability reports, and press releases in order to explore how Gulf universities located at Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are incorporating SDGs into academic programmes, research and community engagement.

“While the GCC higher education sector is increasingly embedded in the global sustainability discourse, meaningful localisation of SDG practices and data transparency remain limited,” noted the study, Advancing Sustainable Development: The Role of Higher Education in the Arab Gulf States in Achieving National Priorities and Global Goals (SDGs).

It was published in Sustainability on 17 June and authored by Khalaf Al’Abri at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, Evren Tok at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar and Tasneem Amatullah at Emirates College for Advanced Education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), .

SDG teaching ‘appears shallow’

The study found that the integration of SDGs into academic programmes across GCC universities reflects a strong emphasis on national development priorities, particularly in sustainability, entrepreneurship, innovation, energy, and human capital development.

“The formal structure of SDGs education is widely adopted, while its penetration into core teaching is difficult to verify and, on the available evidence, appears shallow,” the study indicated.

It added: “While the absence of empirical data limits the measurement of outcomes, analysing textual materials provides a reliable basis for evidence-based conclusions.”

The study pointed out that the research initiatives of GCC universities cluster around nationally prioritised and politically uncontentious themes such as climate change, energy, water security, innovation and economic diversification. While engagement is markedly thinner on contested domains such as labour standards, participation and equity, which attract little documented research.

“The deliberate avoidance of politically sensitive but structurally important areas such as equity, labour standards and participatory governance, undermines the transformative spirit of the SDGs agenda, which is reduced to a technocratic exercise without social depth,” Adel Alshammari, professor of education at the university of Hafr AlBatin in Saudi Arabia, told University World News.

‘Safe sustainability’ and ‘SDG-washing’

“Empirically, we document how state steering, rankings logics, and governance constraints produce a recognisable Gulf pattern of ‘safe sustainability’,” the study noted.

Analysing the performance of universities in the UAE, Qatar, and Oman using two global databases, namely, the IMPACT ranking, introduced by Times Higher Education, and the Sustainable Development Goals Universities Initiative (SDGsUNi), launched by the World Association for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the UN, suggested that GCC universities are engaging with SDGs in different ways based on their institutional missions, national priorities and available resources.

The study indicated that the UAE is at the forefront of integrating SDGs into its universities. It also found that while sustainability practices are being integrated in several learning stages in Qatar and Oman, with each university contributing according to its specialties and strengths, there is a need for greater emphasis on SDG17 (Partnerships for the goals) and there remains a lack of reporting and data.

“Therefore, ranking outcomes should be interpreted as indicators of visibility and reporting rather than definitive measures of sustainability performance,” the study indicated.

“While growing GCC participation in global SDG rankings signals attention to sustainability, these instruments privilege self-reported documentation, incentivising disclosure and branding over organisational transformation,” the study pointed out.

The study indicated that the cross-case evidence suggests three distinctive features of GCC universities’ SDG engagement.

First, intense state dependency (centralised steering, sovereign-ministerial financing and national vision alignment) shapes the direction and pace of SDG work. Second, an unusually high density of international branch campuses produces dual accountabilities to host-state priorities and foreign accrediting-brand standards. Third, reputational incentives, especially rankings and soft power objectives, encourage obvious, low-risk sustainability activities.

High rankings, common among UAE universities, reflect state-aligned compliance capacity and curated narratives rather than profound changes to curricula, governance, decarbonisation, or equity practices; conversely, lower scores in Oman or Qatar may indicate reporting deficits rather than weaker performance, according to the study.

“In politicised higher-education ecosystems, this dynamic risks SDG-washing, whereby universities accrue legitimacy and soft-power without proportionate social or ecological outcomes. Rankings are, at best, noisy proxies of sustainability,” the study indicated.

Whose SDGs, what purposes, what consequences?

The findings indicate growing institutional engagement with sustainability agendas; however, SDG implementation remains largely shaped by global ranking frameworks and policy imperatives, with only limited evidence of substantive SDG localisation.

The study explained this pattern, stating: “Coercive pressures from state visions, research councils, and priority-setting bodies shape topic selection and timelines, mimetic pressures from peers and global rankings drive visible SDG reporting, and normative pressures arise from international accreditation and professional communities”.

It states that “together, these dynamics can generate symbolic compliance, polished reporting, and project showcases, without commensurate substantive transformation in curricula, governance, or campus operations”.

This reframes “SDG adoption as a negotiated field, not a neutral good, prompting the questions: Whose sustainability, for what purposes, and with what consequences?”

The study points out that given the region’s migrant labour demographics and ecological vulnerabilities, a postcolonial epistemic justice lens invites questions about which knowledge and communities are centered in the Gulf HEIs’ SDG agendas.

Alshammari told University World News: “This study is an important epistemic intervention in the discourse of sustainability in Gulf higher education, powerfully exposing the current dissonance between ceremonial compliance and substantive institutional transformation.”

Take-away messages for HE policymakers

Speaking to University World News, lead author of the study, Al’Abri, associate professor of education systems and policies, said: “The study contributes to an emerging understanding of how universities in the Arab Gulf States are engaging with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

Al’Abri who is also the co-editor of the 2026 book titled Higher Education and Sustainable Development in the Arab Gulf States: Practical Approaches and Institutional Strategies added: “Its significance lies in highlighting the distinction between visible sustainability commitments and evidence of deeper institutional transformation.”

He pointed out: “The findings suggest that while SDGs have become an important reference point for higher education development across the GCC, further efforts are needed to strengthen localisation, assessment of outcomes and integration into core institutional functions.

“For higher education policymakers, the key message is that sustainability should move beyond reporting and rankings toward measurable educational, social, and environmental impact.”

Al’Abri suggested that policies should encourage context-sensitive approaches that align SDGs with national priorities while also promoting transparency, evidence-based evaluation, and regional collaboration.

“Building institutional capacity and developing robust monitoring mechanisms will be critical for ensuring that sustainability initiatives generate meaningful long-term change.”

The implications of the study are threefold:

• Ranking-based accountability should be complemented by outcome indicators and independent verification if it is not to reward disclosure over substance.

• Meaningful localisation, rather than template adoption, is the more appropriate benchmark for assessing Gulf higher education institutions.

• Since SDG engagement is co-produced with the state, governance reform that permits inquiry into contested domains is a precondition for moving from commitment-as-signalling to substantive transformation.

Dr Narimane Hadj-Hamou , founder and CEO of the Center for Learning Innovations and Customized Knowledge Solutions (CLICKS) in UAE, told University World News: “The significance of this study lies in its reminder that sustainability is not a branding exercise, a ranking ambition, or a ‘box-ticking’ activity, but a long-term institutional transformation agenda.”

She highlighted the need for “cultural change by institutionalising sustainability through stronger governance, enhanced cross sectoral collaboration, better data, meaningful accountability, and cultures that reward long-term value creation”.

“Beyond measuring inputs and reporting efforts, universities should increasingly demonstrate how sustainability contributes to student competencies, research impact, community well-being, resource efficiency, and national development,” Hadj-Hamou concluded.

“The challenge is, therefore, not one of commitment, but of moving from isolated projects to whole-of-institution approaches where sustainability is embedded across governance, curricula, research, operations, procurement, partnerships, and institutional performance systems.”

Looking beyond Gulf states

The study called for strengthening regional collaboration to advance the 2030 Agenda, capacity development and tailored policy approaches to fully harness the transformative potential of the SDGs.

Professor Jean-Pierre El Asmar, academic vice-president of the Royal University for Women in Bahrain, told University World News: “The study looks critically at the transition from foundation compliance to deeply integrated sustainability practices in GCC universities, reflecting the challenge of relying on centralised, standardised frameworks seen in the region in the different facets of development among which urban planning.

“This is not limited to the GCC; it also applies to different parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where checklist-based or ad-hoc frameworks can fall all short of addressing substantive environmental, social and economic realities.”

El Asmar added: “In my opinion, the persistent concern over institutional visibility and global ranking metrics can sometimes act as an indirect proxy rather than an authentic metric of real structural change or actual impact on sustainable development.

“Universities should treat their campuses as micro-urban environments, meaning that organisational change requires implementing holistic sustainability underpinned by the three pillars, rather than focusing on fragmented projects that lack a unified, long-term impact on energy conservation, social equity, and economic sustainability.”

Towards SDG stewardship

Expanding further, Dr Ahmed Abokhalil , associate professor at the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Department of the University of Sharjah in UAE told University World News: “For higher education policymakers, the key takeaway is that sustainability performance should be assessed through measurable outcomes in curricula, research impact, campus operations, and community engagement rather than relying primarily on reporting and ranking indicators.”

Abokhalil noted: “GCC universities have made significant progress in integrating sustainability into their strategic agendas; however, stronger localisation, transparent performance metrics, and independent assessment mechanisms are needed to ensure that SDGs implementation delivers tangible social, environmental, and educational impact,” pointed out.

“The reliance on global ranking metrics as proxies for sustainability performance risks institutionalising a culture of performative reporting that obscures, rather than advances genuine progress, without independent verification of outcomes.

“I argue for a replacement of template driven adoption with meaningful localisation based on regional ecological realities and demographic specificities,” Alshammari indicated.

“This necessitates a paradigm shift toward governance reforms that foster critical inquiry, data transparency, and cross-institutional accountability mechanisms, thereby moving Gulf universities from symbolic alignment toward authentic sustainability stewardship,” Alshammari concluded.