Contributions of three Mexican higher education institutions to sustainable development: A comparative analysis

Abstract

This research focuses on the study of the contributions of three of the most important Mexican higher education institutions – National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), and University of Guadalajara (UDG) – to sustainable development (SD) considering public information from websites, as well as global, national, and local literature. The objectives were to understand how these HEIs integrate the SDGs into their institutional strategies and compare the extent to which they contribute to sustainable development. The analysis showed that the three institutions incorporated the 17 SDGs into their strategic plans, developed a specific organizational structure to manage and monitor sustainability, and reported multiple activities with different approaches and levels of contribution. These differences may be related to: (a) the diverse meanings that institutions give to sustainability; (b) the lack of clarity in the criteria that each institution uses to consider an activity as SDG-oriented/SDG-based; (c) the lack of transversality between institutional activities and the SDGs beyond discourse; and (d) institutional characteristics. In view of the above, we propose some ideas to promote better institutional practices and policies that favour, through higher education, accelerated progress towards the Global Goals and the 2030 Agenda.