Paper long abstract:

This study investigates the broad potential of higher education teaching and research to engage with the Sustainable Development Goals. There exist two conceptual dimensions to examining the role of teaching in higher education - the instrumental and the holistic/humanistic dimension. At the instrumental level, higher education institutions are expected to equip individuals with technical and soft skills and knowledge, and credentials enabling them to work in professions and occupations. At the humanistic level, universities can empower individuals, by supporting their holistic development, including their self-formation during the transformative years individuals spend in higher education. There are two conceptual dimensions to examining how research-based universities can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs - through the applied and the blue skies research. Evidently, these two domains intersect in multiple ways; the most prominent of which is research-informed teaching. Considering these two domains of higher education and the two dimensions within each domain, this study explores how academics in the Caucasus and Central Asia define the main challenges facing their local communities, their countries, and the global society. Further, the study examines how academics see the contributions of higher education institutions, as potentially significant development actors, to addressing the identified local, national, and global challenges. Open-ended online surveys were used to collect the narrative data from academics in Georgia and Kazakhstan.