Is higher education up to solving the challenges of the world beyond 2015? This is the question the ACU set out to answer before the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the Beyond 2015 campaign, which gathered views from higher education professionals, NGO representatives, and academics across the world.

To coincide with the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ACU has published a final report entitled 'Progress and potential: higher education playing its part in the SDGs', summarising the key points and lessons learned through the two-year campaign. These include:

• Higher education underpins all development targets, from poverty reduction to employability, health to environmental sustainability.
• Higher education institutions are well placed to feed research evidence into the design of national development policy and strategy.
• Meeting the MDGs and SDGs depends upon skilled graduates.
• Harmonisation of education strategy from primary through to higher education can ensure sustainable paths for students and can lay the groundwork for accommodating growth in enrolment at all education levels.

The formal adoption of the SDGs by all United Nations (UN) member states marks a major milestone in the global development agenda, but it is just the beginning. Universities have a key role to play across the development landscape, as demonstrated through the contributions to our campaign. Those of us working in the higher education arena are uniquely placed to support the success of all the goals through specialised research, community outreach and engagement, training future leaders, and fostering the sharing of knowledge, resources and ideas.

You can download a copy of the full report here – if you're on Twitter, follow us @HEBeyond2015 and get involved with the conversation using the hashtag #HEBeyond2015

To find out more about the campaign and read submissions from higher education professionals located across the world, take a look at the Beyond 2015 website

If you have any questions or feedback, send them to [email protected]

For further information about the SDGS, check out the UN's Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform