International higher education can be a tremendous force for good – fostering cross-cultural understanding, promoting global citizenship, supporting economic innovation and contributing to solving global challenges. However, it comes with a carbon footprint.
CANIE (Climate Action Network for International Educators) is a grassroots non-profit initiative formed by international education practitioners around the world who see the need and the opportunity for the sector to step up and offset that footprint by acting on climate.
The initiative supports the international higher education sector in developing climate literacy, reducing carbon emissions and creating climate awareness within the sector. It is thanks to global partnerships – with CANIE’s 800+ members and CANIE Accord signatories – that this work can happen.
“Partnerships are at the heart of CANIE,” said Deborah McAllister, Global Vice-President for CANIE. “We are run by an army of global volunteers, and I think that is a testament to a partnership made up of people who are committed to a cause. Everything we do happens because our volunteers ask ‘What can I do? How can I support collective action towards a solution for climate change in our sector?’”
Partnerships: Arguably the most important SDG?
Of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the last on the list as SDG 17 is Partnerships for the goals, which encourages the implementation of high-impact multi-stakeholder partnerships for the SDGs.
“Nobody ever says that goal 17 is the most important,” said CANIE Global President, Ainslie Moore, “but it absolutely is. None of the other goals would be possible in such a complex environment without collaboration and partnerships.”
She added: “What we’re trying to achieve is systemic change, which cannot be done alone. It has to be done in partnership and on multiple levels. At CANIE, that’s something we think about in everything we do, so we look at the role of international education practitioners and what they can influence, but we also look at the curriculum and what can be done there, and we help educators to implement methods above and below their own circumstances.”
The CANIE Accord enables international educators to sign and demonstrate a shared commitment to aligning with scientific recommendations and international climate agreements, for the first time as a sector. The Accord includes 70 commitments, which Moore says: “are broken down into basic, better and best categories to provide universities and organisations with clear steps of progression that they can meet wherever they are in their journey. It’s a roadmap.”
She added: “There is an underlying belief that teaching students about sustainability is enough, but it’s beholden upon us to act beyond that. The CANIE Accord includes commitments related to the curriculum, student engagement and student programming, but the commitments also look at how institutions partner with others to improve their climate activity.”
Finding the mobility balance
Students are now actively investigating the sustainability outcomes of the universities they are interested in. In fact, 97 percent of prospective students say that sustainability is important to them (QS International Student Survey 2024). This expectation is driving universities to work harder on their sustainability outcomes, but there is tension in the sector when it comes to decarbonising certain areas of the university experience, such as mobility.
“Mobility is at the heart of what we do in international higher education,” McAllister said. “Some people view a move into climate action as a move to stop everything you’ve ever done and completely redesign and redeliver your core business objectives. That’s not necessarily how it has to be.
“There are many opportunities and methods to mitigate some of the impact that student and staff mobility has on the climate, and embedding climate literacy into mobility initiatives to enable people to make more informed decisions is much more effective than telling people to stop doing what they’re doing.”
“What we’re trying to achieve is systemic change, which cannot be done alone.“
Moore added “we see a lot of creativity in how study abroad students are encouraged to think about the carbon impact of where they choose to study, how they get there and even the course they choose to study. Partnerships can enable more creative solutions to mobility challenges, by bringing more diverse perspectives and different strengths together.”
Indogenius delivers intensive learning abroad experiences in India, providing in-depth experiential learning around the challenges facing an economic powerhouse like India, including environmental, health, poverty prevention, economic growth. A joint programme brings together 21 universities, led by Central Queensland University in partnership with the Australian Government, provides grants for students to experience a four-week virtual study tour in India.
Beyond university-to-university collaborations
Engaging with a broader network in collaborative partnerships can accelerate innovation and more impactful implementation of sustainable solutions. McAllister and Moore believe that universities should expand their collaborations beyond traditional partnerships and obvious university-to-university matches to leverage diverse expertise and resources from governments, NGOs, and industry.
“Excellence is found in places you might not first look,” said Moore, when asked what makes a sustainable partnership successful. “If your university is a research powerhouse, don’t look to other powerhouses as the only partnerships you’ll benefit from. There are opportunities everywhere and higher education institutions should be asking ‘what can we do together and how can we help each other to help ourselves?’”
There has been a shift in how universities approach partnerships in recent years with centralised units trying to manage fewer partnerships at a deeper level. McAllister said: “Universities are realising that it’s not about collecting the biggest number of agreements and signing paperwork to gain more friends in the sector. It’s about building and maintaining real, sustainable, impactful and equitable partnerships.
“Something that is important for universities to consider when they are looking at partnerships is to make sure they are lasting. You want a marriage, not just a wedding, and a divorce can be tricky. Making sure your partnerships have long-term strategies and impactful outcomes is important. Ask what the partnership means, what the outcomes will be and if they are mutually beneficial. If not, are you OK to proceed?”
CANIE has been officially recognised in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability to encourage universities across the globe to consider the carbon impact of their international education mission and publicly commit to act specific initiatives within their universities to educate, advocate and act to create change. The inclusion of the CANIE Accord in the QS rankings methodology acknowledges the critical role that international educators play in driving climate action and fostering sustainable practices on a global scale.
Leigh Kamolins, Director of Analytics and Evaluation, commented, “Partnering with CANIE underscores our dedication to incorporating climate action within the assessment frameworks of higher education. This collaboration not only encourages but also supports universities globally in integrating essential sustainability practices into their core institutional strategies.”