WIUT has adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework to support this core mission and to record, measure, and improve our contribution to a range of social, environmental, and economic outcomes. Every colleague plays a role in furthering this commitment as well as baking the SDGs into everything we do across our operations, teaching, and research and knowledge exchange.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) – itself couched within the SDGs – is the mechanism we use at WIUT to deliver on our commitment to embed sustainable development and the SDGs into our education offer.

The 17 SDGs enable us to frame and bring together our extensive collective energies towards helping our part in addressing the needs of the region’s labor markets and environmental challenges. This SDG Report shares our experience and records our achievements in 2023 against each SDG goal.

This is the third time that the University has submitted its application to the Times Higher education Impact ranking. Moving forward, we are continuing to work in collaboration with colleagues and students across our community through our operations, with the focus on linking our research, teaching, operations and communications to the SDGs.

WIUT adopted the SDGs in 2022, and recently turned its focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). There are many examples of ESD already happening throughout WIUT curricula in one way or another, even it is not labelled or articulated as such. Through the official adoption of ESD – we must ensure:

• Early in their time at WIUT, all students are introduced to the concept of holistic sustainable development using the SDGs.
• All students are taught to connect their discipline to sustainable development throughout their studies.
• Teaching colleagues and the University, as an ecosystem, are consistently reinforcing and building on the two points above.

Empowering students to become sustainable citizens will only happen if they are taught about sustainable development and how their professional knowledge and skills and unique personal experiences can deliver a sustainable future. We will be demonstrating an excellent standard of ESD by doing the below:

• Teaching students a holistic view of sustainability
• Connecting that sustainability learning to their discipline in core modules throughout their education
• Reinforcing the former two points through assessment which arms them with the competencies to live and lead sustainably

Doing so in all courses across WIUT by 2025 is our goal and will mark the University out as a leader in ESD. To achieve this, an ESD Action Plan has been developed for by Academic Council in June 2024 to facilitate the rollout of ESD with targeting milestones from now through to the 2025-26 academic year.

Eight WIUT students and their tutor travel to London on May, 2023 to take part in the 2nd Annual University of Westminster Conversations Conference and the 6th Annual Democratic Education Network (DEN) International Student Conference. The trip is highly educational for our students combining field trips, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) network meetings and participation in conversations that engage students from all over the world and provide them with the opportunity to improve their employability skills and modern knowledge.

This year’s event, held on 5th of September 2023, hosted at Westminster International University in Tashkent, focused on a “Conversation Unveiling Uzbekistan’s Private Sector Contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals." As in its inaugural forum, the Conversation provided a platform for key stakeholders to engage in discussions on the private sector's role in advancing sustainable development in Uzbekistan. The event sought to amplify the contributions of the private sector to Uzbekistan's journey towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It recognized the private sector's significance beyond economic growth, acknowledging its role as a catalyst for social progress and environmental sustainability.

Bakhrom Mirkasimov, Rector of Westminster International University in Tashkent, stated, "The academic sector, in general, and, in particular, Westminster International University, plays a pivotal role in this ecosystem. Our research, expertise, and commitment to education on sustainable development contribute to evidence-based solutions that drive progress."