TOWARDS ACHIEVING SDG 3 AND 4: THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY RESEARCH THROUGH IMPLEMENTATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE IN EAST AFRICA

Abstract

Education has been acknowledged to be a human right, a public good and a public responsibility. Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, nations will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind (UNESCO, 2020). In the labor of attaining the sustainable development goals, quality education, good health and well-being - Goals 3 and 4 respectively - have been placed as the central dogma in achieving the global goals. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the role of university research through the implementation of quality assurance in attaining quality education, good health and well-being for sustainable development in East Africa. The paper examines the heart of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) - Quality Education & Good health and well-being - in the context of how university researchers can get it delivered. This paper perceives promoting interdisciplinary and collaborative research, linking research outputs into teaching as well as commercialization of science as the leeway in assuring and achieving quality education, good health and well-being through higher institutions (universities) in East Africa. The paper concludes that achieving the ambitiously adopted sustainable development goals by United Nations in quality education, good health and well-being can be achieved by adopting, implementing and practically applying quality research outputs from universities done under quality assurance measures. The paper recommends amongst other measures that implementation of research-tutored system by designing curriculum that emphasizes learning focused on students writing and discussing research papers or essays.