De Montfort University is a global academic hub chair and as such publishes a progress report on both the individual United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as well as a comprehensive report on all the goals.

Our 2025 report will show what the university has been doing in terms of research, teaching, partnerships and engagement in helping to meet those targets and raising awareness of the progress towards the 2030 aims.

This is the progress report for SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals. The full report on all the SDGs can be viewed here.

 

UN PROGRESS REPORT ON SDG 17 in 2025

PROGRESS on 25% of the targets set in 2015 look set to be met by 2030 with a further 20% showing moderate progress. However, 30% of the targets show only marginal progress, 20% have stagnated and a further 5% have actually regressed on their 2015 levels.

The UN report says: “Low and middle-income countries faced record-high $1.4 trillion debt-servicing costs in 2023, compounded by a $4 trillion annual investment gap that severely constrained SDG achievement.

“Despite increased financial flows from official and private sources, Official Development Assistance declined by 7.1% after five years of growth, with further cuts expected.

“The share of developing countries in global merchandise exports has remained stagnant since 2015. Access to information and communications technology continues to expand.”

MAJOR DMU NEWS ON SDG 17 IN 2025

DMU to lead United Nations Hub to help build better cities and communities

THE United Nations has chosen De Montfort University Leicester DMU to lead a network aiming to build better cities and communities across the world.

The university has been made chair of the global Academic Impact hub for Sustainable Development Goal 11 – sustainable cities and communities.

This means it will lead a team of other co-chair universities across the globe in helping to address issues like affordable housing, transport and disaster resilience in cities worldwide.

DMU launches £1.3m grassroots climate action project

DE MONTFORT University Leicester (DMU) has secured more than £1.3m in National Lottery funding to lead a major new community-driven climate initiative aimed at embedding sustainability in some of the city’s most deprived neighbourhoods.

The three-year scheme will bring together five grassroots organisations working with diverse communities across the city. Backed by the National Lottery Community Fund, the programme will establish a climate action hub at DMU, designed to support local people in cutting emissions, improving wellbeing and influencing climate policy.

Partner groups – Leicester Nirvana Football Club, Somali Development Services CIC, ZamZam Unlimited Possibilities CIC, Saffron Acres and One Roof Leicester – will receive funding to deliver their own climate-related projects, from community gardening and recycling drives to arts-based workshops and youth training.

Leicestershire's universities are working together for a greener future

LEICESTERSHIRE’S universities - University of Leicester, De Montfort University (DMU), and Loughborough University - are proving that collaboration is key in tackling climate change.

The institutions joined forces in 2022 under the Universities Partnership, in a ground-breaking agreement designed to tackle local challenges, including climate change.

A cornerstone of their efforts is the Leicestershire Climate and Nature Pact, an ambitious commitment that unites universities, businesses, and local councils in a shared mission to achieve net zero by 2045.

 

DMU among guests as Uzbekistan President officially opens Pharmaceutical Technical University

STAFF from DMU met with the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, for the official launch of one of its international partners, Pharmaceutical Technical University (PTU).

The pharmaceutical industry in Uzbekistan has been developing in recent years and the PTU project, initiated by presidential decree in 2019, will help the Central Asian country produce more qualified pharmacists to keep up with local demand.

DMU has been working with PTU since the start of the project six years ago, providing training for the university’s future teaching staff and developing the delivery of the first MSci Pharmacy degree programme to be offered in Uzbekistan.

 

DMU expert to lead efforts to cut food poverty in Leicester

WORK to eliminate food poverty in Leicester is to be led by an expert from DMU.

Professor Jonathan Davies has been appointed as independent chair of Feeding Leicester, a network of organisations working together to ensure access to food for all.

Feeding Leicester is part of the Feeding Britain Network, set up a decade ago by former Labour minister Frank Field in response to the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hunger and Food Poverty.

 

DMU conference on the future of policing outlines university's commitment to public sector partnerships

SENIOR police officials, academics and practitioners have come together to explore how collaboration between forces and universities can drive greater innovation and tackle challenges facing modern policing in the UK.

More than 120 delegates from 20 police forces & institutions and 13 universities attended the Society of Evidence-based Policing (SEBP) Midlands Regional Conference, which this year was hosted by De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester’s Policy Unit and Business and Law (BAL) faculty.

The conference outlined how generative AI is becoming more prevalent in fraud and sexual abuse cases, with Superintendent Lewis Lincoln-Gordon explaining the need for academia and public services to combat the threat.

 

DMU celebrates three-decade partnership with prestigious Danish business college

A cELEBRATION of the 30-year partnership between De Montfort University and Niels Brock Business College in Copenhagen has taken place this week.

The two institutions have been working together for three decades and now provide students with first class education and qualifications in areas including business, computing, international tourism, and hospitality management.

The anniversary was marked this week with a week-long festival of learning.

 

Multi-million pound research funding boost for DMU and Midlands universities

A COALITION including DMU and 14 Midlands university partners have launched Forging Ahead - a new initiative set to revolutionise how research and innovation are translated into real-world impact.

Forging Ahead, led by Loughborough University and Midlands Innovation, will radically enhance the commercialisation ecosystem, supercharging entrepreneurial activity, scaling innovation, and creating dynamic new pathways for academic ideas to become high-growth ventures.

The initiative is backed by £9.9 million from Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund, with an additional £6.1 million in matched support from the partner universities and regional stakeholders.

DMU celebrates its first Kazakhstan graduates

THE first ever students at De Montfort University Kazakhstan have graduated at a ceremony in the country’s largest city, Almaty.

DMU opened its Kazakhstan campus in September 2021 to enable more international students to study for a British degree and became the first UK university to open a campus in the Central Asian country.

 

Ey up me duck! - DMU continues its long-running partnership with Leicester Comedy Festival

DMU is thrilled to continue its 32-year partnership with the Leicester Comedy Festival for 2025, set to kick off next month.

Founded by DMU Arts and Festivals Management student Geoff Rowe, Leicester Comedy Festival is now one of the biggest and longest running comedy festivals in the whole of Europe, bringing thousands of people to the city each year.

The line-up for the festival is set to be a record-breaking year with more than 720 events being staged in 80 venues big and small around Leicester and Leicestershire.

MAJOR DMU RESEARCH ON SDG 17 IN 2025

America as a Revisionist Power: Trump, ‘America First,’ and International Order

da Vinha, L. and Dutton, A. (2025)

IN HIS second term, Trump’s “America First 2.0” positions the United States as the main revisionist power, seeking to remake the liberal international order (LIO).

The paper contends that the administration actively undermines the LIO by challenging its structural foundations – sovereignty, self-determination, and multilateralism – as well as its liberal norms of free trade, democracy, and human rights.

Trump’s rejection of multilateralism, skepticism toward alliances, and embrace of protectionism directly erode these principles. While his first term initiated this challenge, a second Trump administration offers an unprecedented opportunity to further weaken or even dismantle the LIO, generating profound uncertainty and instability unless other states step forward to sustain it.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98627-7_18

‘Facilitation regimes’ and maritime trade in Nigeria: A critical appraisal of Nigeria's Implementation of the IMO FAL and the WTO TFA

Dirisu, Abdulmumuni (2025)

The interdependency between international trade and maritime transport cannot be overstated.

WITH over 80 per cent of global trade by volume carried out by maritime transport, the procedures and processes in and around the maritime domain can either aid or act as barriers to global trade.

These procedures and processes, collectively referred to in this study as 'facilitation rules', are the subject of national, regional, continental and multilateral frameworks and regulations.

'Facilitation regimes' and maritime trade in Nigeria: A critical appraisal of Nigeria's Implementation of the IMO FAL and the WTO TFA

 

Transnational education as ecosystem: Rethinking sustainability and equity

Wang, J. (2025)

TRANSNATIONAL education (TNE) continues to expand globally, yet many partnerships remain fragile, short-lived or insufficiently connected to local contexts.

This study argues that TNE must be reimagined not as a transactional delivery model but as a dynamic ecosystem grounded in equity, sustainability and mutual capacity-building.

Drawing on 245 survey responses, 20 stakeholder interviews and more than 1000 regulatory audit findings, the analysis identifies systemic barriers including weak institutional integration, rigid curriculum transfer and fragmented support for students and staff.

https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70099

 

Triple-A transnational education (TNE): Addressing intercultural challenges

Wang, J. (2025)

TRANSNATIONAL education (TNE) creates a dynamic intercultural space where students, staff, managers, and regulators engage with diverse norms, expectations, and institutional practices across borders.

The intercultural challenges embedded in TNE remain underexplored in both research and policy.

This study introduces the Triple-A TNE Partnership Framework—agility, adaptability, and alignment—as an empirically grounded conceptual model for navigating these complexities.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2025.1568138

 

Climate obstruction across the Global South

Faruque, M. O., McKie, R. E., Christel, L. G., Debucquois, C., Edwards, G., Gellert, P. K., Gutierrez, R. A., Hochstetler, K., Li, Y., Milani, C. R. S., Möhle, E., Oguntuase, O. J. and Walz, J. R. (2025)

THE Global South countries differ in their histories, development trajectories, political structures, and participation in multilateral organizations. They also differ in their vulnerabilities to climate change.

This identifies key actors and organizations undertaking climate obstruction activities in various sectors in the Global South. It examines these actors’ political aims, their alliances with other actors and organizations, and the strategies, tactics, and narratives they deploy to undermine both legislative and policy actions to address climate change.

https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197787144.003.0008