The Sustainability Evaluation Tool for Higher Education Institutions (SET4HEI) is a free, online and open resource. It allows higher education institutions to map their current and potential future contributions to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Launched in September 2023 as a “beta” or early version, the final version of SET4HEI was launched in July 2024.

SET4HEI has been designed to cover a wide range of social, economic and environmental activities that higher education institutions could potentially undertake. The 18 self-assessment questionnaires below address each one of the 17 SDGs plus a shorter introductory assessment on basic good practices across all SDGs. However, institutions are not necessarily expected to undertake all activities in all areas. An institution can choose to assess only those SDGs more aligned with the institutional strengths, strategy, values or vision.

The self-assessments linked below can be used to explore the SET4HEI indicators without the need for registration. The self-assessments are hosted in Campus IESALC, also managed by UNESCO IESALC. At the end of the self-assessment you will be immediately able to see the results, including some general recommendations based on your score, and to download them in a pdf format. If you access the assessments through the links below, your results will not be saved after you close your browser.

If you want to be able to save your progress or see the results of past self-assessments (in the “My Assessments” section), you can register for free and then access the self-assessments catalogue for registered users. If you are not already registered, the system will give you the option when you open any of these assessments. Note that assessments need to be accessed through that catalogue for the system to recognize your user. The catalogue at the end of this page is only for the anonymous self-assessments.

If you want UNESCO to certify your contribution to several SDGs, you can apply for the SET4HEI certification.

The SET4HEI assessments are currently available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. You can change the language of assessment at any time once inside the evaluation platform.

For more details on how to fill in the assessments, visit the section How does it work or download the user guide (available in English and Spanish).