Universities and academics have been increasingly encouraged to improve research performance, international visibility, and institutional reputation in order to achieve world-class standing. Existing research has consistently demonstrated a close relationship between world-class university development and national policy agendas, with higher education excellence initiatives serving as key policy instruments for strengthening institutional competitiveness and global standing. Concurrently, as sustainability has become a prominent global agenda, university rankings and quality assurance systems have introduced new assessment metrics to capture and evaluate higher education institutions’ engagement with, and contributions to, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These emerging SDG-related metrics aim to move beyond traditional evaluation frameworks in higher education. This presentation examines SDG engagement among the top 200 research universities in Asia and the challenges they encounter in integrating sustainability into institutional practices and evaluation systems.
Angela Yung-Chi Hou is a Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at the College of Education, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. She served as Executive Director of the Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT), National accreditor of Taiwan from 2016 to 2021 and has been deeply engaged in quality assurance practice and international research for over 20 years. Her leadership roles include serving as Vice President and Board Member of both the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) and the Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN). In 2024, she was invited by INQAAHE to serve as an international reviewer for accrediting quality assurance agencies worldwide. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Springer book series “Higher Education in Asia: Quality, Excellence and Governance” and serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals in the field of higher education. She is recognized among the world’s top 2% most-cited scholars in the field of higher education quality assurance. She is recognized as the top 2 researcher in field of quality assurance of higher education worldwide according to SCOPUS. In 2025, she is being listed as top 2 % as highly cited scholar by ScholarGPS
She serves as Chief-in-Editor of Higher Education Evaluation and Development (HEED) Emerald and Higher Education in Asia: Quality, Excellence and Governance by Springer, Associate Editor of Journal of Asian Pacific Educational Review (SSCI) and Quality in Higher Education (SCOPUS) and several editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals in higher education field. Up to present, she has published more than 150 English and Chinese journal papers, articles, book chapters, reports and monographs in higher education, international education, and quality assurance.
In 2023, she was granted “Outstanding Research Award” by National Science and Technology of Council Taiwan and “Excellent Research Award “at National Chengchi University. In 2024, She was awarded “the Best Researcher and Teacher” and from 2023-2025, she was awarded as “Best Research Award” by National Chengchi University.
