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Analytical Studies > Analysis on the 2023 Hiroshima Summit
G7 Summits > 2023 Hiroshima Summit

Where Do Universities Factor in G7 Deliberations?

Julia Kulik, Director of Research, G7 Research Group
June 2, 2023

G7 leaders concluded their three-day summit in Hiroshima on May 21, 2023, after nine working sessions to address key issues and challenges confronting the world, including economic resilience, foreign policy, infrastructure and sustainability. Most notably, on the summit's final day there was a second session on Ukraine and one on peace and security more broadly. Both included the participation of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined the other leaders in person, signalling to the world that the G7 remained committed to its foundational principles of promoting democracy and human rights and its unwavering support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's aggression. Across all these issues, the G7 relied in the lead-up on a growing set of stakeholders to inform its discussions, adjusts it priorities and aid in the implementation of its summit commitments. These stakeholders have historically included international organizations, several of which have been consistently invited to participate at summits for decades (see Appendix A). It has also included private sector and civil society organizations that participate in the summit process via the G7's engagement group consultations (see Appendix B).

Universities are well placed to play a significant role in the G7 process given their contributions to strengthening democracy, generating research that informs policies, and educating the next generation of leaders and citizens. They have increasingly done so by way of individual academics and research institutes that are consulted on various topics related to the G7 agenda.

More recently, the U7+ Alliance of World Universities was formed in 2019 as an unofficial G7 engagement group. It convenes over 40 universities that seek to contribute to the G7's agenda and deepen its engagement with the process. To determine the path and potential for their deeper engagement, an analysis of how universities have factored into G7 deliberations to date follows.

Summit Communiqué Conclusions

In their collectively agreed summit communiqués, in 1999 G8 leaders (then including Russia) recognized higher education and universities directly for the first time at the Cologne Summit, with brief references in its statement on lifelong learning that noted the need to establish linkages between universities and companies (see Appendix C). In the following years, while establishing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the G8 put health first in acknowledging the key contribution that universities could make. At Okinawa in 2000 and again at Genoa in 2001, the G8 committed to work with academic institutions to deliver on its targets to reduce the burden of these three diseases. In 2000 the G8 also hosted its first ministerial meeting on education.

The 2006 St. Petersburg Summit significantly expanded the G8's attention and scope to higher education. Here, the G8 leaders acknowledged higher education institutions as producers of leading-edge technologies, which should be capitalized on. The leaders committed to work together to establish public-private partnerships to facilitate global knowledge dissemination and translation. They promised to promote investment in knowledge and in research and development (R&D) and to leverage public expenditures to attract private funding in R&D and encourage closer cooperation between universities and industry, They also promoted international academic mobility at all levels, recognizing the value of cross-cultural learning and its impact on society.

There were references to higher education in one paragraph in each summit's communiqué between 2007 and 2011. The focus expanded to embrace the participation of universities in larger networks dedicated to meeting commitments related to sustainability, food security, and maternal, newborn and child health, and also regional security in the wake of the Arab Spring. Health remained a focus, with other foci added. Although absent from 2012 to 2014, higher education re-emerged in 2015 (now without Russia) and appeared more significantly at each summit until 2018. Then, higher education was linked to another G7 priority at that time: gender equality. There were no references in 2019 or 2020, despite the introduction of the new informal engagement group composed of university leaders, known as the U7+ Alliance.

In 2021, G7 leaders stated a desire to discuss the role of technology in supporting open societies and tackling global challenges and expressed support for a dialogue between governments, industry, academia, civil society and other key stakeholders. Furthermore, they issued a separate statement on the G7 Research Compact, which for the first time expressed their belief in academic freedom. The compact committed to developing and implementing a set of principles and toolkit to protect research and innovation ecosystems across the G7 from risks to open and collaborative research. In 2022, leaders reiterated their commitment to promoting academic freedom, including through cooperation through the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism, which protects democratic and open societies from foreign interference and disinformation. Here, G7 leaders committed to enhancing the resilience of public actors, including academia.

At the 2023 Hiroshima Summit, in its statement on food security, the G7 committed to promoting innovation and technology at every stage in food systems by supporting all knowledge holders including academic institutions. In the Indo-Pacific section of the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Leaders' Communiqué, they welcomed and encouraged efforts made by universities to promote and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region. In the education section, they acknowledged the work they have done to break down gender-related barriers from pre-primary through higher education and encouraged international exchanges and collaboration between students, academics, researchers and higher education institutions. In the science and technology section, they committed to the philosophy of open science and promoting a common understanding of research security and integrity.

Note that the references mentioned above pertain specifically to higher education and not the more general references to education, which is much broader in scope.

Commitments

The growing number of references and attention to higher education and universities in G7 communiqués indicates that the G7 views them as valuable actors in shaping and implementing its agenda. Possibly more important, however, are G7 commitments to employ and to support universities to act unilaterally on an issue or work collaboratively to achieve an important task.

G8 leaders first made a collective, public, precise, future-oriented, politically binding commitment on higher education at their Okinawa Summit in 2002 (see Appendix D). It came as part of their efforts to work collaboratively to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. In 2002, leaders committed to working with African partners to increase assistance to Africa's research and higher education sectors. The number of commitments made in 2006 at St. Petersburg increased and aligned with those above, including one to promote innovation alliances and increase the exchange of ideas and expertise about university-based public-private partnerships in G8 members.

Between 2006 and 2011, the G8 made a few commitments, including to strengthen linkages between their own universities and those in the Middle East and North Africa. But in 2017, universities re-emerged as part of the G7's gender equality agenda. This included commitments to supporting universities and research institutes in the integration of the gender dimension in university courses and curricula, and to support programming that aims to remove barriers that generate discrimination against women in scientific or academic careers and decision making at universities and research institutes. In 2022, G7 leaders committed to academic freedom and to strengthen the resilience of academia as part of its foundational mission of promoting democracy. In 2023, commitments were made in the more standard context of education, including removing gender barriers to education and encouraging international mobility and collaboration.

G7 Education Ministers' Meeting

This year, the Japanese presidency also held a meeting of G7 education ministers on May 15, in the lead-up to the Hiroshima Summit. This was only the fifth time an education ministerial has been held, unlike several of the other ministerial portfolios that meet annually. Although the ministers' communiqué only referred to higher education in one paragraph, several areas of its focus do relate to universities specifically. Its main theme was the impacts and disruption caused by Covid-19 and Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Its opening paragraph acknowledged the foundational role of education in democracy, freedom, the rule of law and peace. It noted the opportunities as well as challenges associated with the recent development of digital technologies and the need to improve information and communications technologies to improve access to education. It devoted an entire section to the importance of international student and talent mobility and made commitments to promote international exchange, recognizing the fundamental role it has on developing intercultural competencies and strengthening democracy. However, although the ministers agreed to encourage high-level education discourse, they did not commit to meet again in 2024 under Italy's presidency, which would be critical for continuity and would ensure that higher education issues receive greater attention at the leaders' level.

The U7+ Alliance of World Universities

Overall, the G7's attention to or mobilization of higher education institutions in pursuit of its goals has been minimal and sporadic. However, closer collaboration with the sector was established under the France's 2019 G7 presidency with the introduction of the U7+ Alliance, an international group of universities from G7 members and beyond, including 21 countries in North America, Europe, East Asia, Africa, India and South America. The U7+ engages both in discussion and in concrete action by making commitments to address the most pressing global challenges in a multilateral context, with a focus on the G7. The U7+ has thus carved out a larger role for itself in meeting global challenges by outlining specifically how it will contribute. This includes making commitments related to enhancing sustainability education, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, exercising strong leadership, and developing and promoting guidelines about how to handle data sciences and digital innovation.

At its annual summits and in direct response to the G7 priorities and agenda, the U7+ has released statements that outline its own contributions to specific subjects and call on the G7 to act. This includes the 2021 U7+ Alliance of World Universities Statement to the G7, which highlighted priority areas in which universities could collaborate with G7 leaders, including strengthening resilience against current and future pandemics, tackling climate change, access to education and academic freedom. Although, as noted above, in 2021 the G7 did note its belief in academic freedom, it did not commit to working with universities on this or any of the other areas listed in its statement. In the 2021 U7+ Statement on Climate Change and Sustainability, released in October of that year, U7+ members welcomed the opportunity to contribute alongside other global actors and work through collaborative partnerships with governments, private sector and civil society organizations. The G7 has yet to acknowledge universities in the context of its commitments and work on climate change.

In the 2022 U7+ Statement on the War in Ukraine, U7+ members expressed concern for Russia's aggression in Ukraine and commitment to peace, truth, democracy, academic freedom and international cooperation – but did not note or call on the G7 specifically to act. The 2022 U7+ Statement to the G7, highlighted sustainability, infrastructure and economic security as areas for collaboration with the G7 and expressed a desire to become an official G7 engagement group in 2023. Universities did not appear in the related sections of the communiqué from the G7's Elmau Summit.

The U7+, in its 2023 Tokyo Statement on Peace and Security: Universities as Engines of Innovation for Peace and Security, made specific requests to the G7, including requests to invest in peace and security education at all levels, incorporate the latest research into policy on peace and security, diversify thinking about peace and security by incorporating diverse voices into policy discussions, and to defend academic freedom and freedom of speech. Arguably, some progress was made here: at its subsequent meeting, G7 leaders encouraged efforts by universities that contribute to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Moreover, in the landmark G7 Leaders' Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament, a centrepiece of the summit, leaders made the following statement on education more broadly:

Achieving the world we hope to see requires a global effort to take us from the harsh reality to the ideal, no matter how narrow the path may be. In this regard, we underscore the importance of disarmament and non-proliferation education and outreach. We encourage other leaders, youth and people from around the world to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to raise and sustain awareness of the realities of nuclear weapons use one can witness in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To this end, we welcome initiatives such as the "Youth Leader Fund for a World without Nuclear Weapons" by Japan, the "Young Professionals Network" of P5, the "Youth Champions for Disarmament" financed by Germany, and the "Young Women Next Generation Initiative" established by the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium, as well as other initiatives that support the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in addition to the engagement of civil society in disarmament and non-proliferation processes.

However, they did not formally recognize the U7+ Alliance as an official G7 engagement group, although some U7+ members had direct consultations with G7 sherpas and the U7+ Alliance's Tokyo Statement was delivered to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in person before the U7+ Summit in Tokyo in March.

Conclusion

Despite the ground-breaking research and innovation developed at higher education institutions in G7 countries, including in collaboration with one another, universities remain on the sidelines of the G7 summit process. Although there appears to be an expanded set of areas in which universities are acknowledged as contributors, references are not consistent from year to year. There is less evidence of G7 commitments to work with universities on specific initiatives and yet there is deep alignment on priorities and fundamental values.

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Appendix A: International Organization Leaders at G7 Summits ↩

Notes:
Group of Five = Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

[a] International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade WTO (WTO), United Nations. 

[b] South Africa. 

[c] Algeria, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, UN, World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), WTO. 

[d] Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, UN. 

[e] Saudi Arabia. 

[f] Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Switzerland, IMF, UN, World Bank, WTO. 

[g] Turkey. 

[h] Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen. 

[i] Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, African Union (AU), International Energy Agency (IEA), IMF, UN, World Bank, WTO. 

[j] AU; Commonwealth of Independent States, International Atomic Energy Agency, IEA, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, UN, World Bank, WHO, WTO. 

[k] Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, AU, IEA, IMF, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UN, World Bank, WTO. 

[l] Australia, Indonesia, Korea. 

[m] Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, UN, World Bank. 

[n] Spain, Turkey. 

[o] Algeria, Angola, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Senegal, AU, Food and Agriculture Organization, IEA, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Labour Organization (ILO), IMF, OECD, UN, World Bank, World Food Programme, WTO. 

[p] Algeria, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Jamaica, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal. 

[q] Algeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Senegal, Tunisia, AU, Arab League, New Partnership for Africa's Development, UN. 

[r] Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, African Development Bank (AfDB), UN. 

[s] Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Senegal, Somalia, UN. 

[t] Ethiopia, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, UN, IMF, OECD, UN, World Bank. 

[u] Chad (AU but counted as country), Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, UN, IMF, World Bank, OECD, Asian Development Bank 

2017: Kenya, Tunisia, Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia, UN, IMF, AU, AfDB, OECD, World Bank.

2018: Argentina, Bangladesh, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Marshall Islands, Norway, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Vietnam, IMF, OECD, UN, World Bank.

2019: Australia, Chile, India, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa, Egypt, Mali, Mexico, African Union, UN, IMF, World Bank, OECD, WTO, AfDB, ILO.

2020: Australia, Brazil, India, Korea. 

2021: Australia, India (virtual), Korea, South Africa, IMF, UN, WHO.

2022: Argentina, India, Indonesia, Senegal, South Africa, Ukraine (virtual); IEA, ILO, IMF, OECD, UN, World Bank, WHO, WTO.

2023: India, Indonesia (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Australia, Korea, Vietnam, Cook Islands (Pacific Islands Forum), Comoros (AU), UN, World Bank, IEA, IMF, OECD, WTO, WHO (virtual).

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Appendix B: G7 Engagement Groups ↩

Official

• Business7 (B7)
• Civil7 (C7)
• Labour7 (L7)
• Science7 (S7)
• Think7 (T7)
• Women7 (W7)
• Youth7 (Y7)

Unofficial

• Pride7 (P7)
• Urban7 (U7)
• U7+ Alliance of World Universities (U7+)

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Appendix C: Communiqué Conclusions on Higher Education ↩

Notes:

Data are drawn from all official G7-language documents released G7 the G7 leaders as a group. Charts are excluded. 

Words: "#" is the number of higher education-related subjects for the year specified, excluding document titles and references. Words are calculated by paragraph because the paragraph is the unit of analysis. "% total" refers to the total number of words in all documents for the year specified. 

Paragraphs: "#" is the number of paragraphs containing references to higher education for the year specified. Each point is recorded as a separate paragraph. "% total" refers to the total number of paragraphs in all documents for the year specified. 

Documents: "#" is the number of documents that contain higher education subjects and excludes dedicated documents. "% total" refers to the total number of documents for the year specified. "# dedicated" is the number of documents for the year that contain a subject related to higher education in the title.

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Appendix D: G7 Commitments on Higher Education ↩

Excerpts from summit outcome documents from the year indicated.

We therefore commit ourselves to working in strengthened partnership with governments, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations, industry (notably pharmaceutical companies), academic institutions, NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and other relevant actors in civil society to deliver three critical UN targets:

• 2000: reduce the number of HIV/AIDS-infected young people by 25% by 2010
• 2000: reduce TB deaths and prevalence of the disease by 50% by 2010
• 2000: reduce the burden of disease associated with malaria by 50% by 2010

Working with African partners to increase assistance to Africa's research and higher education capacity in enhanced-partnership countries – including by:

• 2002: Supporting the development of research centres and the establishment of chairs of excellence in areas integral to the NEPAD [New Partnership for Africa's Development] in Africa; and
• 2002: Favouring the exchange of visiting academics and encouraging research partnerships between G8/donor and African research institutions.
• 2002: Favouring the exchange of visiting academics and encouraging research partnerships between G8/donor and African research institutions.
• 2003: We will convene senior G8 policy and research officials and their research institutions to compare and to link programmes and priorities, to involve and assist in more effective planning and potential linkage of future programmes addressing research on global observation, cleaner energy, agriculture and biodiversity.
• 2004: Interacting with academic and research institutions in related areas, such as humanitarian law, human rights, criminal law, prison management, and civil-military cooperation.
• 2004: To promote agricultural science and research, we will enhance institutional capacity to utilize science and technology through links between universities.
• 2004: Foster partnership relationships between agricultural institutes and agriculture departments in our universities and their counterparts in food-insecure countries, including by linking national programs into sub-regional and regional networks.
• 2005: Helping develop skilled professionals for Africa's private and public sectors, through supporting networks of excellence between African's and other countries' institutions of higher education and centres of excellence in science and technology institutions. In this respect, we look forward to the outcome of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society taking place in November in Tunis.
• 2006: encourage educational policies and investment that foster diverse, efficient, sustainable, and high quality higher education institutions;
• 2006: We will collaborate on creating research networks among higher education institutions, research centers and business, and capitalize on the leading edge technology they produce.
• 2006: In addition, we will encourage closer cooperation between universities and industry. These actions will generate innovation that improves the lives of our people, the prosperity of our nations and the well-being of the global community.
• 2006: Our governments will cooperate with the private sector in the development of innovative, high quality higher education and research and development systems.
• 2006: Our governments will promote dialogue and synergies with business, higher education and labour to develop sound higher education and human resources policies.
• 2006: We will promote innovation alliances and increase the exchange of ideas and expertise about university-based public-private partnerships in the G-8 countries.
• 2006: We will identify points of contact in our countries that can facilitate the exchange of ideas and expertise, while recognizing that private sector involvement in the development of these partnerships is one of the main keys to achieving an effective linkage between higher education and the needs of the global innovation society.
• 2006: We will promote international academic mobility at all levels, significantly increasing the mobility of students, teachers and researchers.
• 2006: We will enhance existing programs of exchange and promote the development of linguistic and cross cultural skills. The Bologna Process aimed at creating the European higher education area is an example of one such program.
• 2006: We will share information about qualification systems in our countries to increase understanding of national academic practices and traditions.
• 2006: We will collaborate with the academic community and the private sector to ensure we use the best models of education governance, teaching and management.
• 2006: We will encourage the development of education policies aimed at fostering a system of accessible, diverse, sustainable, and high-quality higher education institutions, both university and non university including research institutions, community colleges, technical schools, public and private sector vocational training institutes, with the ability to respond to new demands.
• 2006: We shall promote cooperation with the private sector to foster diverse, efficient, sustainable higher education institutions.
• 2008: We promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by supporting the UNESCO [United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization] and other organizations in the field of ESD and through knowledge networks among relevant institutions including universities to encourage actions by the public leading to a more sustainable and low carbon society.
• 2011: [We will] foster greater educational [linkages between our universities and those in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region]
• 2011: [We will foster greater] research linkages between our universities and those in the MENA region.
• 2015: We establishing [sic] a G7 Alliance on Resource Efficiency, which will provide a forum to exchange and promote best practices and foster innovation together with business (Business 7) and other stakeholders, including from the public sector, research institutions, academia, consumers and civil society, on a voluntary, nonbinding basis.
• 2016: [Shedding light on diseases that require further R&D improvements, particularly for conditions not adequately addressed by the market, including Poverty-Related Infectious Diseases (PRDs) and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs):] Work to strengthen collaboration between research institutions, funding organizations and policy makers across G7 countries, building on the G7-process for mapping of R&D [research and development] activities on NTDs and PRDs initiated in 2015 and now underway in 2016.
• 2017: Raising awareness among young women and men, about gender-stereotypical attitudes towards performances in academia and apprenticeship programs with a view to encouraging more women and girls to study STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] and start vocational education and training as well as careers in these sectors by 2020.
• 2017: [Raising awareness among] parents [about gender-stereotypical attitudes towards performances in academia and apprenticeship programs with a view to encouraging more women and girls to study STEM and start vocational education and training as well as careers in these sectors by 2020].
• 2017: [Raising awareness among] teachers [about gender-stereotypical attitudes towards performances in academia and apprenticeship programs with a view to encouraging more women and girls to study STEM and start vocational education and training as well as careers in these sectors by 2020].
• 2017: [Raising awareness among] educational institutions [about gender-stereotypical attitudes towards performances in academia and apprenticeship programs with a view to encouraging more women and girls to study STEM and start vocational education and training as well as careers in these sectors by 2020].
• 2017: [Raising awareness among] employers [about gender-stereotypical attitudes towards performances in academia and apprenticeship programs with a view to encouraging more women and girls to study STEM and start vocational education and training as well as careers in these sectors by 2020].
• 2017: Consider developing, funding and implementing specific programs that target universities and research institutes aimed at removing barriers that generate discrimination against women in scientific or academic careers and decision-making.
• 2017: Supporting universities and research institutes, as appropriate, in the integration of the gender dimension in university courses and curricula, as well as in research and innovation contents.
• 2017: Strengthen the collaboration between universities, research institutes and the private sector.
• 2017: Promote curricula training on gender equality for educational and school staff and students on both gender norms and stereotypes as well as on preventing violence against women and girls in schools at all levels and higher education by 2022.
• 2018: We will work to mobilize and support collaborative government, industry, academia, citizen and youth-led initiatives.
• 2021: We support the aim to facilitate dialogue between governments, industry, academia, civil society and other key stakeholders. [re: Future Tech Forum]
• 2021: Maintain policies, legal frameworks and programmes which promote research collaboration – among our scientists, research institutions and innovative businesses; (international cooperation)
• 2022: [More broadly, we will also enhance the resilience of] … academia … [through a whole-of-society-approach]
• 2022: Promoting academic freedom and strengthening the role of scientific evidence and research in democratic debate
• 2023: We continue to break down gender-related barriers and underlying discriminatory social norms from pre-primary through higher education for more resilient, inclusive and gender-transformative education.
• 2023: We continue to encourage international exchanges between youth and international talent mobility and circulation among academics, students, and researchers, as well as cooperation between higher education and research institutions.

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Julia Kulik, MPP, is director of research for the G7 Research Group as well as for the G20 and BRICS Research Groups and the Global Health Diplomacy Program, all based at the University of Toronto. She has written on G7, G20 and BRICS performance, particularly on the issues of gender equality and regional security. Kulik leads the groups' work on gender, women's health, higher education and summit performance.

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