Embedding SDGs in Higher Education Curricula: A Case Study

Data analytics has enabled evidence-based decision-making, monitoring, and implementation across multiple sectors, making datasets easier to collect, analyze, and understand. Data analytics presents an opportunity for the application of advanced techniques to address challenges in the real world including at the global level such as those associated with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In educating the next generation of professionals, instilling them with the desire to use technologies for public good and support the implementation of SDGs is highly desirable, but how to do this in higher education settings so as to develop talents and future professionals who can create meaningful impacts towards a nation's and global sustainable growth is not clear. It is still challenging to transform students' perspectives from seeing data analytics projects as purely academic exercises to developing real-world solutions that can have an impact on policy and sustainable development. This paper describes a case study on developing students as professionals and their understanding of SDGs utilizing the Data Analytics Group Project curriculum at the University of Malaya. With the findings, this paper intends to inspire academics to consider how SDGs can be included in the curriculum so that students as trained professionals can adopt a holistic viewpoint of their professional contributions to society and the SDGs in particular, taking into account the cultural, economic, and environmental influences on a country's sustainable development initiatives.