UN Forum Calls on Universities to Renew Their Curricula
At the 2026 Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Global Forum, held under the auspices of the United Nations, participants discussed how universities should structure their educational models in response to climate change, artificial intelligence, social inequalities, and geopolitical uncertainty. Borhene Chakroun, Interim Director of UNESCO’s Division for Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems, stated that higher education is at a crucial juncture.
The forum emphasized that universities should no longer act solely as institutions of education and research, but also as actors that develop solutions to crises and help societies prepare for future changes. Speaking at the forum, Shinobu Yume Yamaguchi of the United Nations University noted that only 15% of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are currently on track. It was also stated that, if current education and employment trends continue, 80% of jobs requiring green skills could remain unfilled by 2030 because of a shortage of qualified workers. According to experts, sustainability should not be confined solely to the environmental sciences; it should be integrated across all disciplines, including engineering, economics, health sciences, and social sciences. They noted that new curricula should simultaneously develop systems thinking, critical thinking, ethical leadership, problem-solving, digital competence, and artificial intelligence literacy.
The use of artificial intelligence in higher education was also a major item on the forum’s agenda. Experts warned that directly layering artificial intelligence onto existing and poorly organized data systems could produce biased results and false narratives. They therefore recommended developing AI governance awareness among university leaders, practical implementation skills among academic and administrative staff, and students’ ability to evaluate information generated by artificial intelligence critically.