Impact of Higher Education and Globalization on Sustainable Development in the New EU Member States

Sustainable development has been one of the critical issues on the world agenda since the 1970s given the depletion of natural resources, environmental degradation, inequalities, population growth, and urbanization. Therefore, uncovering the factors underlying sustainable development matters for the design of optimal policies. This study investigates the influence of higher education and globalization on sustainable development in the new EU members for the 2000-2019 duration with a panel data approach in view of the research gap in the empirical literature. The consequences of the analyses point out that higher education and globalization have significant influences on sustainable development in the short and long terms. However, the long-term influence of globalization over sustainable development is found to be relatively higher than the influence of higher education on sustainable development.

Automated summary

This study fills the research gap by investigating the impact of higher education and globalization on sustainable development in the new EU members from 2000 to 2019. The results show that both higher education and globalization have significant influences on sustainable development, with globalization having a relatively higher long-term impact.