The new Frontiers in Sustainability Research Topic on ‘re-purposing universities for sustainable human progress’, 24 varied papers and has involved 65 authors in total, is now online, and has already surpassed 90,000 views. Find an excerpt of the editorial below:
The profound threat to the long-term wellbeing of society as a whole, both present and future generations, is arguably the most acute threat humanity has ever faced. But what is the culpability of Universities in allowing this systemic unsustainability to emerge? And how can this existential threat be dealt with if academic institutions are not firmly in the vanguard?
This Research Topic on the transformational role of academic institutions is aimed at breaking disciplinary silos and bridging theory and practice through purpose-driven organisations to make societies more sustainable.
Our Research Topic addresses the contention emerging from various quarters that the current academic response, in education and research, for our society to cope with emerging systemic challenges is fundamentally inadequate. Universities tend to be seen as public organizations core to maintaining human progress towards greater levels of human well-being. And yet the growing global urgency over soaring inequality, accelerating climate crises, ecological collapse, and socio-economic breakdown suggests something has gone badly wrong with the way in which our higher education institutions have delivered human value.