The THE rankings measure how universities worldwide are performing against the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs came into force in 2016 and set a 15-year agenda for all countries to end poverty, fight inequalities and build peaceful, just and sustainable societies.
Placing first overall for the second year running reaffirms the University of Auckland’s strong commitment to sustainability and making a positive social impact through its partnerships, research, teaching, operations, community engagement and knowledge transfer. Read more about this here.
Since the University closed we've been forced to teach remotely. Fortunately, we were already using a great online course delivery system, Canvas. We can reuse lecture recordings from previous semesters or make new ones using PowerPoint's audio recording feature. Most importantly Zoom, a video conferencing system, is proving invaluable. It enables us to host group meetings and webinars. We're also using Zoom for school management and research meetings. Various member of staff are experimenting with other online collaborative tools and will report on their pros and cons in due course. It's not entirely business as usual but we're coping.
On a personal note, my friends and I are also using Zoom socially. Sunday afternoon we got together virtually over a few a drinks and had a great catch-up and last evening we held a pub quiz that went very well. You may be in isolation but there's no need to feel isolated.
