Research activities of higher education institutions in the Visegrad countries on Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG-11)

Abstract

In setting its sustainability goals, the United Nations has rightly paid particular attention to urban levels of sustainability, given their rapidly growing size and environmental and social impacts. Urban universities have a key role to play in the achievement of the relevant SDGs, as they contribute in many ways to the achievement of the sustainability goals of global, national and regional-local communities, whether through education or research. In this study, we have analysed the representation of the Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG-11) sustainability goal in higher education institutions, based on relevant academic publications, in the EU Member States between 2017 and 2021, with a special focus on the Visegrad countries. Our analysis also covered the quality and quantity of publications related to the SDG-11 sustainability goal, and the results were used to make cross-country and inter-university comparisons. We also analysed the typical sub-themes within SDG-11, the relevant overlaps and differences between universities in the V4 countries. The main data sources used were the World Economic Forum's Times Higher Education (THE) international rating system and the Scopus database. Our methodology is largely a descriptive simple quantitative analysis based on factual data.