17.3.1 - 17.3.17 Publication of SDG reports - SDG1 – SDG17

Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) reports its progress against each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals every year. The summaries below come from the SWU SDGs Report 2025 and set out, goal by goal, what the university did during 2025, how it worked with its partners and what changed, with performance data for the year. The full report is available at https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf.

SDG 1 No Poverty

Money should not decide who gets a degree at SWU. The Phet Nai Tom Scholarship, run with ISOC and the Ministry of Education for families with an annual income of no more than THB 360,000, brought 161 students from low-income and special areas to SWU in 2025, with admission, housing and study materials provided. Once on campus, students who need extra income can work for the university: the Student Employment and SWU Tutor programmes gave paid jobs to 507 students in 24 faculties, colleges and units, worth THB 2,349,722 at THB 60 an hour.

Off campus, the focus was Uthai District in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya. Villagers and local schools received free mentoring and hands-on workshops on herbal products and community branding, and SWU worked alongside local agencies and OPS MHESI on area-based development, from an accounting workshop for three communities on 14 October to a review of results on 2–3 December. SWU researchers also published 13 papers on SDG 1 during the year.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 5–12): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=5

SDG 2 Zero Hunger

Hunger on campus often hides behind tight budgets and exam stress, so SWU tackled both. Since 1 October 2025, every food outlet on both campuses has sold a complete meal for THB 30 under the 30-Baht Meal Programme, open to any student without paperwork, and the Central Library handed out free food and drinks during midterm and final exams. The SWU Healthy Canteen, launched with ThaiHealth on 11 March, now lists calories and nutrients for more than 600 dishes from 29 shops, so diners can choose well.

Beyond the university, the College of Creative Agriculture for Society trained 37 farmers in hydroponics and Good Agricultural Practices and 21 in vermicompost production in Nakhon Nayok, and helped 13 food producers design market-ready packaging. Farmers in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya learned to rear black soldier flies as low-cost feed and fertiliser. SWU researchers published 36 papers on SDG 2.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 13–20): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=13

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

SWU made every indoor and outdoor area it manages smoke-free under its Smoke-Free Campus Policy B.E. 2568 (2025), and paid close attention to the mental health of its own people. Students can get free counselling at eight SWU SMILE locations on both campuses, in person, online or by phone; the SWU SMILE centre of the Division of Student Affairs alone saw 323 students in 467 sessions during 2025, and activities such as the SWU Heal Jai With LOVE exhibition and Mindful Jai Foo helped students manage stress. Staff have three counselling centres of their own and, in July, sessions on stress and work–life balance.

Health partnerships reached from Laos to Nakhon Nayok. On 5–6 February, the Faculty of Dentistry’s mobile dental unit treated 514 people in Paksong District, Champasak. On 19 September, the Faculty of Physical Education, Sports and Health signed an MOU with the Nakhon Nayok Provincial Public Health Office to bring village water up to the 3C standard, while its outreach teams ran fitness checks for schoolchildren, hydrotherapy and health assessments for older people, and health education for ethnic minority communities in Omkoi District, Chiang Mai.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 21–35): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=21

SDG 4 Quality Education

SWU’s Policy on Equal and Non-Discriminatory Access to Lifelong Learning promises learning opportunities regardless of ethnicity, religion, disability, immigration status or gender, and the university spent 2025 opening its doors to the public. The free SWU Open House on 1–2 November showed the public what 20 faculties and colleges teach, and the Central Library alone recorded 10,111 visits and activity participations over the two days.

Smaller events reached particular groups. BioPlus2025 brought more than 100 secondary-school students from over 30 schools into SWU biology labs on 21 June, the Thai–Chinese Cultural Exchange Festival offered free language, music and painting workshops on 27 June, and the Faculty of Dentistry opened a lecture on digital dentistry to the public on 22 August. Health Fair 2025 gave free screenings and health education to older-adult clubs and village health volunteers. SWU researchers published 89 papers on SDG 4.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 37–44): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=37

SDG 5 Gender Equality

SWU reviewed and reissued six gender equality policies in 2025, covering admissions, recruitment, pay and leadership, the rights of transgender and gender-diverse people, family support and protection from retaliation; eligible fathers can take up to 15 working days of fully paid paternity leave. Women received 68.92% of the 6,854 degrees awarded during the year and held 29 of the university’s 65 senior leadership posts, including 12 deans.

The data also showed where support still matters: first-generation women, who were 2,657 of the 5,111 women starting a degree, and women in STEM, whose share of graduates fell to 59.87%. The Electrical Industrial Education major therefore mentored its female students through real technical work, including an appliance workshop for 19 students in Lopburi on 28–30 March. Staff with young children receive a THB 500 discount at the Sirindhorn Child Development Center 7, and women made up 82.4% of participants in mentoring activities held in October and November.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 45–64): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=45

SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation

Every student, staff member and visitor at SWU can drink safe water for free. During 2025, 157 drinking water stations worked across both campuses, 112 of them shown on an online map of Ongkharak Campus. Ongkharak dispensers draw from the university’s own water plant, tested weekly against Provincial Waterworks Authority standards, and the Faculty of Science tests its dispensers every month. The Water Reuse Policy requires wastewater to be treated at source, checked and reused on campus, for example to water the landscape.

The same know-how went out to communities. Residents of Chachoengsao Town Municipality took a free course on checking water safety and improving wastewater, and their knowledge scores rose from 3.16 to 4.54 out of 5; a follow-up on 21 June found them treating wastewater and shrimp-pond water with bio-fermented liquid. In August, a highland school in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai, opened a drinking water system that its own students helped design and build. SWU researchers published 56 papers on SDG 6.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 65–72): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=65

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

SWU’s Zero Carbon policy asks every unit to cut electricity use and emissions by 5% a year. Ongkharak Campus did better, using 7.6% less electricity in 2025 than in 2024, while its rooftop solar systems produced 128,773.89 kWh, almost all used on site. Prasarnmit, at 0.32 GJ per square metre, used over twice as much energy as Ongkharak, so the Central Library put THB 24.61 million into smart lighting controls, and the Faculty of Engineering completed an auditorium renovation in December with efficient air conditioning and 74 kWp of rooftop solar; a solar carport of at least 180 kWp is planned for 2027.

Off campus, the Excellent Center for Sustainable Engineering worked with the Ongkharak Subdistrict Administrative Organization on a mobile solar water pump and trained 129 people, 84 of them farmers, on 26–27 June. A low-pollution biomass kiln handed to a Nakhon Nayok community enterprise on 1–3 April turns crop waste into charcoal instead of smoke, and five free PLC courses taught 110 participants to cut energy waste in machines. SWU researchers published 110 papers on SDG 7.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 73–80): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=73

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Thailand has no official living wage, so SWU checks its pay against two benchmarks: Bangkok’s minimum wage of THB 12,000 a month, in force from 1 July 2025, and the Global Living Wage Coalition figure of THB 15,292 a month for urban Thailand. SWU’s 2025 starting salaries cleared both, from THB 20,250 for support staff with a bachelor’s degree to THB 27,600 and THB 36,200 for lecturers with master’s and doctoral degrees, or 1.32 to 2.44 times the living wage. Provident funds, social security, healthcare, housing support and family benefits come on top.

Staff who feel treated unfairly have clear routes to be heard. They can appeal disciplinary orders or performance evaluations within 30 days, file grievances about discrimination, or use an online complaint system with four channels and anonymous reporting for corruption. The Faculty and Staff Council represents staff of every type and nationality, took their concerns to management through forums such as “SWU Talk: Think, Speak, Change”, and worked with the Council of University Faculty Senates of Thailand. SWU researchers published 74 papers on SDG 8.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 81–90): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=81

SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Companies and commercial partners paid SWU about THB 27.8 million for research in 2025: THB 16,575,719.50 in medicine, THB 10,707,300 in STEM and THB 565,400 in the arts, humanities and social sciences. That income keeps SWU laboratories working on problems that businesses and hospitals actually face.

SWU research is also finding its way into new technology. Patents citing SWU publications rose from 327 for the 2019–2023 publication window to 332 for 2020–2024, and the number of SWU papers cited by patents grew from 164 to 174. SWU published 89 papers on SDG 9, above the worldwide median of 65; among them were engineering studies that turn fresh palm fruit bunches and waste cooking oil sludge into fuel oil.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 91–95): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=91

SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

SWU wants more students with disabilities to come, and to stay. Its own TCAS Round 1 project uses separate programme codes so every application can be tracked; seven places were offered in three faculties and colleges for the 2025 intake, and the project for 2026 opened on 4 November 2025. Students with disabilities pay no tuition fees, and the SWU DSS Center lends notebooks, Braille printers and electric wheelchairs, reads exam papers aloud and helps lecturers adapt their teaching, while SWU BUDDY volunteers help with daily travel and classes.

On 26 November, SWU co-hosted a free education and career fair for young people with disabilities with ThaiHealth, MHESI and two foundations; more than 250 people came and 16 universities explained how to apply. Lecturers from every faculty trained in teaching students with special needs, and SWU hosted national counselling training for disability support staff on 11 June. Inclusion goes beyond disability: on 14 July, SWU released a Pride Month video on its year-round work with LGBTQ+ students and staff.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 97–104): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=97

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

The Department of Sociology teamed up with CODI and the Huai Khwang District Office of the BMA on community housing in 2025. Students surveyed households in the Rong Poon Nuea–Tai community on income, work and living conditions, and the results helped residents plan affordable savings for future homes. Getting around also became greener: the free, fully electric EV Kapor shuttles ran four lines at Ongkharak Campus, and an EV charging station opened at Prasarnmit on 16 June, both part of SWU’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2040.

Heritage work kept local knowledge alive. With the Department of Cultural Promotion, SWU recorded the intangible heritage of five communities, from Chok weaving in Uttaradit to palm sugar in Phetchaburi, and designed prototype products with them. Fine arts students ran heritage projects with schools and communities in November, including stucco art in Phetchaburi and water hyacinth paper flags with a Mon community, and a three-day workshop in October trained people to conserve palm-leaf manuscripts and old photographs.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 105–111): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=105

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

You cannot cut what you do not count, so SWU records its waste every month by campus and type on a public dashboard. Both campuses produced 3,340.67 tonnes in 2025, and 167.45 tonnes stayed out of landfill: 93.88 tonnes of recyclables, 58.58 tonnes of composted farm waste and 14.99 tonnes of food waste fed to fish. On 31 March, five new policies on ethical sourcing, hazardous waste, landfill, single-use plastic and disposable items set targets to cut waste and plastics by at least 10% a year.

Change happened where people buy food and drinks. Vendors at the SWU Night Market switched to eco-friendly packaging, the “Bring Your Cup” campaign gave a free drink to anyone with a reusable cup, and refill stations across Prasarnmit Campus offered free, safe water instead of bottles. Contractors must sort and weigh their waste under the supplier policy, and the SWU Annual Report 2025 published waste, plastic and energy results. SWU researchers published 91 papers on SDG 12.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 113–119): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=113

SDG 13 Climate Action

SWU has committed to carbon neutrality by 2040 and to cutting emissions, electricity and water use by 5% a year. To know where to start, Ongkharak Campus measured its full carbon footprint in 2025 at 16,359.86 tCO2e across Scopes 1–3, with purchased electricity the biggest source, and the Faculty of Medicine received the Carbon Footprint for Organization certificate from TGO. A climate risk assessment based on IPCC AR6 mapped heat, flood and drought risks for both campuses.

Under the NRCT-funded “Innovation for Water Security” programme, SWU helped local government in four provinces prepare for climate disasters. In Phayao, 67 district chiefs, mayors and officers drew risk calendars and evacuation maps for 20 subdistricts on 28–31 October; in Nan, partners planned a four-level flash-flood warning network on 27 October. In Chaiyaphum, 223 people from 10 subdistricts learned to use the Fastflood forecasting model on 6–7 November. FloodBoy stations now send river levels straight to subdistrict officers.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 121–128): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=121

SDG 14 Life Below Water

Much marine pollution starts on land, so SWU’s Policy on Reducing Marine Pollution focuses on campus waste and wastewater. Effluent must meet the national standard for buildings and is tested every month by a laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, and eight laboratories in three faculties passed the national ESPReL evaluation in 2025. Night Market vendors switched to eco-friendly packaging, and 157 free water stations replaced bottled water.

Students also worked in the sea. In Chanthaburi on 21–23 May, 84 students, staff and partners built 40 artificial rope reefs with the Khao Sam Phao Khwam fishing community as nurseries for young fish, shrimp and crabs; in August, 65 student leaders and alumni installed fish homes at Ao Samaesan; and in November, sociology students cleaned nursery ponds for green and hawksbill turtles with the Royal Thai Navy. Fisheries officers received free training on parasites in snails and fish on 3 July.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 129–136): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=129

SDG 15 Life on Land

SWU looks after its own land first. A survey of Prasarnmit Campus records 639 large trees of 77 species around 41 buildings, each with its girth and condition, and all construction needs a permit that checks environmental impact; at Ongkharak, a paved fountain roundabout was turned into planting beds. Water leaving campus is tested against national effluent standards under the Water Discharge Management Policy.

Further afield, the NRCT-funded ChiWaree project helped farmers in Khon Kaen make better use of dry-season land and water: 280 people from water user groups and agencies mapped water sources and planned crops at four reservoirs during 8–12 December 2025, and two drip-irrigation plots now serve as learning centres. SWU also trained farmers in Uthai District to recycle organic waste with black soldier flies, ran a biodiversity day at Ban Thung Kraprong on 4 September, helped care for rescued tigers and bears at Wildlife Rescue Centre 1, and ran a forest ecology camp on 10–12 December.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 137–147): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=137

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

SWU offered neutral ground for political and legal debate throughout 2025. The 20th National Conference on Public Administration on 13 March brought the Governor of Bangkok to campus, former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai spoke on morality, law and justice on 8 September, and a forum on 15 September examined the youth-led protests in Indonesia and Nepal. Students heard the two candidates for Student Organization President set out their plans on 13 May before voting on 27 May.

Neighbours have a say too. The Sook Asok Network, led by SWU with businesses, residents, civil society and the BMA, held its fourth meeting of the year on 24 September, chaired by the President; the BMA adopted its co-designed sidewalk plan after the Governor’s inspection on 19 March, and partners collected 3,955 kg of waste for recycling. SWU publishes audited financial statements every year, and its report for the year ended 30 September 2025 received an unqualified audit opinion.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 149–161): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=149

SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals

SWU worked across sectors on the goals throughout 2025. It hosted WUNCA 45, “SWU EDUVERSE”, on 3–5 September for more than 700 participants from government, universities, technology firms and Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, joined the National Statistical Office’s open data forum and Bangkok Climate Action Week, and co-organised a social innovation conference with MCU and 13 network partners that produced 41 peer-reviewed papers. With government and NGOs, it worked on flood risk in Nan, village water standards in Nakhon Nayok and drought-resilient farming in Khon Kaen.

To learn from others, SWU compared SDG practice with Suan Dusit University and Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University, joined the ICCGC-CoNGO conference in Korea on 15–18 August, and exchanged students and research with VIA University College in Denmark. At home, every undergraduate takes SWU 196, a course built around the SDGs, and 1,560 students and staff sat the sustainability literacy assessment in April–May, scoring 11.1 out of 15 on average. SWU published 961 papers related to the SDGs.

Source (SWU SDGs Report 2025, pp. 163–179): https://rankings.swu.ac.th/Portals/96/SDGReport2025/SWU_SDG_Report_for_2025_web.pdf#page=163

📄 Download: SWU SDGs Report 2025 (PDF)