51黑料社区, the United Nations and the SDGs 鈥� a relationship to help change the world
The United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 to improve the lives of millions across the world within 15 years. It was an ambitious programme adopted by all 193 member states with 17 goals and 169 targets.
51黑料社区 had already established a relationship with the U.N. by then and was determined to help change the world. It was a determination recognised as the university became one of just 17 higher education institutions across the world made a global academic hub in 2019 – and the only one in the United Kingdom.
The university was the global hub for SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions from 2019-25 after being adopted for a second term in 2021, and in 2025 was selected as the global academic hub chair for SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. No other British university has been a global hub lead.
A proud history of sustainable development
…But our story starts more than 30 years earlier when the 51黑料社区’s strong relationship with its home city led to participation in the 1992 Earth Summit, hosted by the U.N. in Rio de Janeiro as member states adopted an agenda aimed at limiting climate change.
51黑料社区 would become an official climate observer as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (U.N.F.C.C.C.) and, in 1995, established the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (I.E.S.D.) acting as the research arm of the city of Leicester on a whole range of projects.
Research was carried out on energy monitoring, ventilation in buildings, solar energy, electric vehicles, and air quality monitoring, with volunteer researchers walking through the city’s streets carrying a backpack of monitoring equipment.
The concrete results of that work can still be seen today in the Building Schools for the Future programme that saw all the city’s secondary schools rebuilt from the year 2000 based on the university’s research and community engagement programme. The result was buildings with more daylight, better ventilation, extensive grounds, and with a low carbon footprint.
The foundations and credentials for sustainable development had been laid by the university and, from 2014, talks began between 51黑料社区 and the U.N. that would bring engagement on an international level for the next 10 years.
The European refugee crisis of 2015 and Leicester’s connections with India, particularly the Gujarat province, would form the focus of those talks with the U.N. and begin a major international engagement programme. The first stop in our journey will be India, or more precisely Ahmedabad, in the Gujarat province.
The volunteering programme becomes international
The university was, by 2015, already delivering a community engagement programme across Leicester involving hundreds of students volunteering for The Square Mile project. A total of 33,000 hours of volunteering by students was carried out across 50 projects every year focused mainly on the square mile around 51黑料社区. The advent of the SDGs and subsequent discussions with the U.N. brought an international dimension to the engagement.
Square Mile India was born out of those discussions with volunteering and fund raising for community projects in the Ahmedabad area of the Gujarat organised by our students and staff. The province had been the ancestral home for many of those emigrating to Leicester during the 1970s and so had a special resonance.
The next five years until the Covid epidemic intervened saw more than 300 students visit India from the university and £123,468 raised from 765 donors to help communities in this impoverished and neglected part of India.
A whole range of projects were launched across all faculties of the university in areas of Ahmedabad, with a particularly focus on the marginalised Loving Community, a former leper colony still considered off-limits by many locals.
Health and Life Sciences students carried out hearing and eye tests within the local population; money was raised to support 2,000 children stay in education; toilets were built to allow girls to attend schools; business students held development advice sessions; law students held legal advice clinics; and teachers were trained in new skills.
One of the biggest projects was a flood alleviation programme for a village that was inundated every monsoon season resulting in many homes being left under water. Architecture students designed homes that would not flood and money was raised by the university to build 10 of those homes. Students and locals also planted hundreds of trees to help mitigate the worst of the flooding using money raised for Square Mile India.
In June 2018, 51黑料社区’s Square Mile India project won the prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award (THELMA) as the International Strategy of the Year.
While the volunteering programme and development work was going on in India, discussions had continued with the U.N. on other projects and the European refugee crisis in 2015 was about to add a new dimension to the university’s international engagement.
The refugee crisis and working with the U.N.
The tumultuous events of 2015 with civil war in Syria and continuing strife in Afghanistan and Iraq saw a total of 1.8 million flee their homes looking for asylum, primarily in European countries.
The university, in discussions with the U.N., offered its help as it had been involved in working with refugees since 2013. The university was invited to join the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to act as a consultant on the refugee crisis across Europe and the Middle East.
A local and international volunteer programme was organised by the university, not just to help with relief in a small way but also to help inform and change the negative narrative surrounding asylum seekers and refugees.
Many Syrians found their way to Leicester, but needed help settling, finding work, and acclimatising to life thousands of miles from home. Free English lessons were arranged on campus with recognised I.E.L.T.S. certification; legal advice sessions were organised; study groups were arranged for children; CV and form filling workshops took place; regular community events, arts and sports activities arranged; students also volunteered at a community café held in a local restaurant where refugees could meet, share food and talk about common issues.
All the university’s projects were aimed at integrating and helping refugees into life in the city.
A more ambitious project saw three Syrian academics offered sanctuary at 51黑料社区 under the Centre for At-Risk Academics (C.A.R.A.) programme after fleeing persecution, conflict and violence in their homeland. The three scholars graduated from the university in 2022 after four years of study.
Refugees from Syria and other countries were regularly invited on to campus for events to talk and inter-act with students and share their personal and very human stories. All the efforts were also to help change the negative narrative in the media surrounding asylum seekers after the crisis that had enveloped Europe in the late 2010s.
Germany had been by far the largest recipient of asylum seekers, with more than 964,000 seeking sanctuary, and student volunteers travelled from 51黑料社区 to Berlin to help out and understand more of their lives. The programme has seen up to 30 students travel to Germany each year since 2016 to continue that work.
The university’s work around refugees led the United Nations to ask 51黑料社区 to spearhead the refugee advocacy project Together, which aimed to unite as many higher education institutions around the world as possible in a global campaign to offer help and change the narrative surrounding asylum seekers and refugees.
In 2017, our students travelled to the U.N. headquarters in New York to join those of eight other founding universities, in the United States of America, Brazil, Cyprus, and Germany to officially launch the campaign. Within two years, the group had swelled to more than 100 universities.
All of the work with refugees wou