Over 70 delegates will travel to the UK to agree a comprehensive capacity building programme that will help achieve the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
GEDU’s managing director for external relations and sustainability, Kevin McCole, is also the director of UNITAR’s London Centre, one of 33 Centres, spanning every continent.
The mission of these Centres is to deliver training and capacity building across the SDGs.
The PIE News sat down with Kevin McCole to understand the work of the UNITAR network, GEDU’s particular priorities, and what will be achieved in the coming days in London.
Kevin, this sounds like a critical week for you and your colleagues. Can you tell us what will happen and why it matters?
It is an important week. It’s exciting too. It’s not every day that a UK education business hosts a delegation led by an assistant UN secretary general and includes other senior UN officials, as well as business, academic and municipal leaders from around the world. It’s a truly global gathering.
UNITAR and its network come together once a year, and part of the programme in London will be internal – we’ll share best practice, identify areas for collaboration in 2026, consider how UN 2.0 and the Pact for the Future will shape the UN’s development agenda beyond 2030, agree ambitious targets and how to achieve them.
We’ve also got important external engagement too, including with representatives of the UK government, parliamentarians and businesses.
While we are discussing global challenges, it’s important to focus on the local too. So we will be hosting the delegation at the Global Banking School campus in Greenford where we will engage local politicians and council officials.
What role do universities play in the UNITAR network?
Of the 33 Centres across the world, most are led by universities. In London next week there will be senior figures from York University in Canada, Newcastle University in Australia, and more from all continents in between.
GEDU’s contribution to UNITAR is global too – it’s not limited to London. With 13 institutions across 15 countries – from Toronto and Tampa in the Americas, across Europe and the Middle East and India, to Brisbane in Asia-Pacific – we are able to bring a global perspective and have a global impact.
Universities can help achieve the SDGs in a range of ways. Through their curricula and extra-curricula activity. Let’s take just three examples from GEDU institutions.
MLA College recently launched 17 byte sized courses – one on every SDG – in partnership with UNITAR.
Shiller International University, with campuses in Heidelberg, Paris, Madrid and Tampa offer the Seeds of Peace Scholarship to support students from conflict-affected regions.
And ICN Business School, a triple accredited creative business school with campuses in Paris, Berlin and Nancy, is an active member of the United Nations Global Compact, the Principles for Responsible Management Education initiative, the Collectif pour l’Intégration de la Responsabilité Sociétale et du Développement Durable dans l’Enseignement Supérieur (CIRSES), and the Conférence des Grandes Écoles network on sustainable development
Of course, universities can’t succeed in isolation. That’s why UNITAR’s general approach, and the specific programme in London, involve national and local governments, parliamentarians, businesses, and civil society. We all need to work together.
We hear about sustainability a lot, but it’s more than just environmental, isn’t it?
Yes, from the UN and UNITAR perspective we look at all 17 of the sustainable development goals.
Many are environmental, for example climate action, life on land, life below water, and affordable and clean energy. But the SDGs also include peace, justice and strong institutions, reduced inequalities and eliminating poverty and hunger.
So we have a broad and important agenda in London next week.
It’s also important to say that the UNITAR programme is giving us at GEDU the opportunity to consider the contribution we can make collectively and as individual institutions.
For instance, how do we best deploy our time and expertise to work in partnership with governments, businesses and NGOs around the world?
We understand GEDU will be making an announcement as well?
That’s correct. We’re going to release our inaugural GEDU sustainability report at an event in the House of Commons.
The report will detail the work being done by all our institutions to address all of the SDGs, including in the SDG that they have adopted and lead on for GEDU. It will also outline our ambitions for 2026 and beyond.
I have to say, preparing this report has been a real eye opener for me – I hadn’t realised just how much our institutions are doing that aligns to the SDGs. And it’s been really encouraging to learn that they all have ambition to contribute even more.
About the author: Kevin McCole is GEDU managing director, external relations and sustainability. Kevin, who has a passion for education and international partnerships, joined GEDU Global Education in March 2025 and leads the group’s external relations, public relations and sustainability activities. Before joining GEDU Global Education, Kevin spent 16 years as managing director of the UK India Business Council, where he worked closely with governments and organisations in both countries on the UK-India FTA and, more broadly, to bring UK investors to India and strengthen the business, education and people-to-people links between India and the UK. Prior to this, Kevin spent 19 years in the UK’s diplomatic service, where he served in The Netherlands, Malta, Romania, India, and in various London postings. In India, Kevin spent three years at the British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata helping strengthen the UK’s partnership with East and North East India.
