UNAIR NEWS – World University Association for Community Development (WUACD), an association established by Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), held another International Summit of WUACD 2021 for two days via a zoom meeting.
On Saturday, December 18, 2021, Prof. Allam Ahmed, as President of World Association for Sustainable Development, United Kingdom, presented materials on “Reconnecting Universities with Communities to Make an Impact on SDGs Post COVID-19 Era.” He explained that in the post-covid-19 era, the world has changed fast. In this regard, universities need to build new relations with communities.
“Education has a significant role in determining the wealth of a country. Universities have to be more sensible and responsive to urgent problems and aspire communities. In this post-covid-19 era, the universities have to play their roles as agents who help national development achieve the United Nations goals in 2030, 17 SDGs,” said Prof. Allam.
He also stated that updating technologies and policies in the post-covid-19 era is needed to overcome problems in some countries, such as the economic crisis. It can be done by empowering youths and women and increasing online competitions.
To achieve SDGs, universities need to determine their goals. The goals have to meet the needs of communities and, of course, international competitions. According to Prof. Allam, the most important goal of SDGs is on point 17, partnerships for the goals, because it is not about finding a solution to a problem but establishing power to find the solution together.
“Universities need to review their curricula and programs. Both have to be based on real problems the communities face, entrepreneurship, and life-long learning for work life,” he explained.
He added that universities, as leaders in the communities, can innovate to reduce susceptibilities in the communities, increase the quality of the learning environment, support the students for their success and good life, and commit to improving other qualities.
Furthermore, Prof. Allam said that to support the communities, universities can strengthen the human resources, finance, and infrastructures of the locals. Providing positive behaviors and examples to the communities can also be good. Universities may also encourage and foster the communities to develop new creative leaders.
“To achieve SGDs, universities need to reconstruct their relations with the communities and develop new structures and processes. The relations between universities and communities have to be based on business innovation run by the locals. Applying SDGs is indeed challenging. We need to make a careful plan and execute it well,” he ended. (*)
Author: Alysa Intan Santika
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
