School of Global Issues & World Systems
Conventional academic work localises understanding of global issues such as UN Sustainable Development Goals and underpinning world systems such as UN, UNESCO, WHO, IMF, and corresponding national systems, to specific departments – political science, history, economics, and international relations, for example.
We believe that, even without taking some of these field as majors, crucial questions about how disciplinary know-how intersects with challenging problems associated with the issues and systems must be asked of modern graduates. This strategic awareness includes perspectives around specific challenges confronting different countries, regions and continents, linked to such World Systems as:
- educational, political, economic, religious, cultural, medical, and environmental.
The awareness must reckon with national budgets are structured to address these challenges, and the nexus between their resolution and the matrix of academic and professional knowledge in the country. Obvious considerations include national productivity and competitiveness, economic policies and management.
Research within the school is therefore about the nature of knowledge connectedness required for academics, students and professionals to generate profound impact of their learning on the wider society. It includes such perspectives as:
- The nexus among disciplinary knowledge and UN Sustainable Development Goals, for example;
- Understanding global issues and world systems via continual general cultural literacy, through media, internet, journals, professional magazines such The Economist, and trawls through the websites of world bodies, national ministries and departments, for example;
- Development studies and informatics;
- Quantitative social science and humanities;
- Real world evidence for robust decision making, including
- Systematic reviews, meta-analysis, strategic reviews and policy blueprints;
- Specific work in government department-focused real world evidence, for example in support of health economics modelling;
- Reviews of national budgets in line with what is known about political economic challenges in different government departments;
- Global impact pathways including Political Economy Scorecards on corruption, competiveness, productivity;
- Women and youth empowerment and employability;
- Triple Helix academia-industry-government collaborations to resolve significant national, regional, and continental problems;
- Structured networks and partnerships;
- Capacity building and advocacy.