Os objetivos de desenvolvimento sustentável nos programas de pós-graduação da UFGD

Abstract

With the advancement of environmental, social, and cultural impacts related to human activity, increasing attention has been given to the concept of sustainability. This is because adopting sustainable practices and activities appears to be the most effective way to mitigate the negative effects of human actions, ensuring that present generations can develop without compromising the ability of future generations to do so in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, this descriptive, exploratory, and qualitative study focuses on analyzing sustainability from the perspective of academic research. More specifically, it aims to examine how the studies developed within the graduate programs of the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD) align with and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), seeking to assess the level of academic engagement with this issue. The sample consists of dissertations and theses published between 2016 and 2023, indexed in the UFGD institutional repository and on the websites of the graduate programs. The data were extracted and organized according to year of publication, faculty, graduate program, type of work (thesis/dissertation), author’s name, study title, abstract, and keywords. Thus, the coding process was deductive in nature and guided by terms related to the 17 SDGs. After data collection, the works were classified based on keywords described by Monash University and SDSN Australia/Pacific (2017), translated into Portuguese, and by the Institute for Applied Economic Research in conjunction with the National Council of Justice (IPEA/CNJ). The results show a strong concentration of studies related to SDG 4 – Quality Education, which accounts for 25.48% of total publications. At the same time, a low level of production is observed in themes associated with SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 14 – Life Below Water, and SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals. This reveals challenges as well as opportunities for expanding research focused on water, energy, marine sustainability, and institutional cooperation.