Universities need restructuring for climate and community needs, study finds

Posted on: 15 July 2025

The new study suggests most universities are ill-equipped to respond to the growing needs of communities facing intensifying crises. The paper says “many universities are increasingly fighting for their own economic survival” rather than supporting communities and wider society. This is because universities are operating in an increasingly financialised, neoliberal, competitive underfunded environment, which forces them to “prioritise their own survival and success”. This disincentivises academic work focused on the public good, community needs, and climate action. It also fuels mistrust of universities among the public. 

Underfunded universities are, for example, more likely to accept donations from fossil fuel interests (constraining the effectiveness of climate action). Over-stretched and overworked academics have less time to engage in climate-related work, and many fee-paying heavily indebted students need to worry more about their individual financial futures than about the future of the planet.  Underfunded universities also have less time and space to engage with communities and respond to community needs.  

The research finds that universities are an underleveraged resource to reduce injustices and vulnerabilities during this time of increasing ecological disruption and economic inequities. The paper says that “the multiple impacts of financialisation severely undermine the ability of universities to address structural changes” that are needed to effectively fight climate change.

The paper entitled Universities, polycrisis and regional redistribution: The need for radical transformation is co-authored by Dr Martin Sokol, Associate Professor of economic geography in Trinity College Dublin and Professor Jennie C Stephens, Professor of Climate Justice at the ICARUS Climate Research Centre, Geography, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.  

Dr Sokol says: “For many universities, their position in international rankings is often more important than the fate of local communities within which they operate.”  Professor Stephens says: “We can’t continue this way if we want heathy sustainable future societies.”   

The researchers, who between them worked in universities in Ireland, the UK, and the USA, call for increased public investment in higher education. This would allow for more spatially distributed higher education institutions, moving away from universities being increasingly concentrated in large urban centres or economically prosperous regions.

To reclaim a focus on the public good, a spatial redistribution of universities is needed to facilitate more place-based, community-engaged learning and research, the authors suggest. They propose a new vision of climate justice universities that enable co-creation of knowledge that meets the urgent needs of local and regional communities. This alternative vision of climate justice universities prioritises very different features than the current dominant model of financialised universities.  

Instead of being individualistic, profit-seeking, exclusive institutions, climate justice universities would become institutions with a collective, inclusive, public good mission. They would be committed to co-designing and co-creating social change in collaboration with local and regional communities. This involves moving away from tuition fees toward free public education, shifting the focus from technological innovation to social innovation, and instead of maximising university revenue they could shift their focus on community wellbeing.  

This first-of-its-kind analysis is published in the peer-reviewed international journal Review of Regional Research as part of a special issue on “The changing role of universities in the context of regional sustainability transformations.”

Sokol’s and Stephens’ research suggests more attention is needed to ensure investments in universities are aligned with the public good and a more equitable and stable future. 

“The structure and financing of universities has a big influence on what society prioritises and how we collectively prepare for an increasingly disruptive future,” said Professor Stephens. “Right now, too many universities seem to be pretending that things are not as bad as they are. Systemic change is urgently needed in society, and restructuring higher education is a prerequisite for that – otherwise universities will continue to reinforce the status quo.” 

Dr Sokol says: "In the age of polycrisis, where multiple crises are unfolding simultaneously, reinforcing each other, we need a bold vision going forward. Universities, by adopting a ‘climate justice’ lens, can be part of that vision. Properly funded and spatially restructured universities can become a game-changing resource to support resilient regional economies and thriving local communities.”

“New investments in spatially distributed higher education would be of critical importance to households and communities in climate-vulnerable regions.”

• Tags:
• Culture
• Environment
• Research
• Society
• Students