This edited volume critically examines the role of higher education institutions in the Arab Gulf States in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of the region’s distinctive resource dependence, environmental vulnerability, and rapid socio-economic transformation. Drawing on original empirical research from across the region, the book analyses how universities are supporting sustainable development through teaching, research, and institutional governance. By combining system-level perspectives with institutional case studies, the volume offers insights into how sustainable development is being interpreted, implemented, and institutionalized within the region’s higher education systems and institutions.
The book makes a distinctive contribution by focusing on the Arab Gulf as a highly developed yet under-researched region of the Global South, where universities operate within ambitious state-led sustainability frameworks and post-oil development transitions. Through detailed case studies, the chapters highlight innovative pedagogical and institutional approaches, including project-based learning, living laboratories, and interdisciplinary research collaborations that support progress toward the SDGs. The volume offers policy-relevant and practice-oriented insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners concerned with the role of higher education in advancing sustainable development in diverse national and regional contexts. 

Khalaf Al'Abri is an Associate Professor of Education Systems and Policies at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, where he also serves as Head of the Department of Educational Foundations and Administration. His research focuses on higher education policy, governance, sustainability, and internationalization in the Gulf region. He has led several national and international research projects on sustainable development, quality assurance, and global citizenship education. Dr. Al-Abri has published extensively on university rankings and higher education reform. He is President of the Gulf Comparative Education Society and collaborates with UNESCO and other international partners to promote education for sustainable development.

Elizabeth Buckner is Associate Professor of Higher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, where she also holds the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Higher Education for Global Sustainable Development. Her research examines how global trends affect higher education and one strand of her work focuses on how universities are integrating sustainable development into their missions and operations. Dr. Buckner is a major contributor to the research literatures in the field of comparative education and comparative higher education. Her sole-authored book on higher education in the Arab world Degrees of Dignity: Arab Higher Education in the Global Era (University of Toronto Press, 2022) was praised as “a tour de force of a work on higher education in the Arab world.” She has also published in many of the top journals in sociology of education (Sociology of Education and the British Journal of Sociology of Education); comparative education (Comparative Education Review, Comparative Education, International Journal of Educational Development); and comparative higher education (Higher Education, Minerva). She holds a MA in Sociology and a PhD in International and Comparative Education, both from Stanford University.