Background

Beginning in September 2022, the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) convened meetings of members of a Joint Task Force on Outcomes and Impacts (JTFOI). The membership of the JTFOI is drawn from two HESI Action Groups: Ratings, Rankings and Assessment (RRA) and SDG Publishers Compact Fellows (SDGPCF).

The Task Force was asked to explore how higher education stakeholders could move towards a more outcome focused way of interpreting their work on sustainability in general and the SDGs in particular. At the outset it was recognised that academic assessment is often focused on research, but the role of higher education in sustainability is considerably wider, incorporating teaching, operations, and outreach, and these aspects are often under-assessed.