Charting the path after 2030: what should higher education’s role be in the future of the sustainable development agenda?

As 2030 approaches, it is clear the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will fall short of their ambitious targets, raising questions about the future of the global development agenda. The current moment presents an opportunity for reconsidering the role of higher education in charting that future. In this Forum, we contribute to growing debates on the SDGs’ future and examine how universities might shape what comes next. We invited scholars to respond to a common prompt: what should follow the SDGs after 2030, and how can universities better contribute to or critique global development agendas? In three distinct pieces, contributors interrogate the economic hegemony of development thinking, advocate for post-carbon futures, and emphasise the value of Indigenous knowledges. Together, they call for reimagining universities as sites of critical inquiry, plural knowledge production, and social transformation in advancing just and sustainable futures.