Cultivating a Collaborative Culture for Ensuring Sustainable Development Goals in Higher Education: An Integrative Case Study

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are not insulated from the challenges facing the planet and have been tasked as key stakeholders in sustainable development (SD). The preliminary data presented in this paper demonstrate that, over the last five decades, there has been a shift toward the categories of SD work that necessitate a collaborative culture that is not traditionally inherent in HEIs. It is offered that when HEIs align their institutional capacities with worldwide efforts to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030 and foster an intentionally collaborative culture, they will become better equipped to face their own unique challenges: becoming “changemaker” universities; collaborating with each other in the knowledge economy; placing students at the center of the teaching and learning process; and fulfilling their “third mission” to partner with external stakeholders and society. This paper will outline the conceptual frameworks used to direct the construction of Wingate University’s Collaborative for the Common Good (CCG). The preliminary data from this case study at Wingate University show promise; tracked impact reports show that an intentionally collaborative infrastructure that is designed to contribute to achieving SDGs provided a unique opportunity for this university to meet the needs of the campus and community despite their many social, economic, and cultural challenges that were exacerbated by COVID-19.