Higher education has a crucial role to play in responding to the climate crisis, not only through carrying out research, but also through teaching, community engagement and public awareness. The Transforming Universities for a Changing Climate (Climate-U) project aimed to strengthen the contribution of universities to addressing the causes and impacts of climate change in lower-income contexts. In doing so, it contributed to the broader task of understanding the role of education in achieving the full set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). First starting in 2020, it focused on five countries: Brazil, Fiji, Kenya, Mozambique and the UK. The project sought to answer two main research questions in these countries: What are the effects of locally-generated university initiatives on actions and ideas relating to climate change?; and How do they inform our understandings of the role of higher education in sustainable development? The qualitative and quantitative collections of data deposited here contribute to an analysis of that answers these questions. We start with a description of the qualitative data collection. A case study design was adopted to guide the research. The focus of the case studies was variously on community engagement, curriculum and campus greening activities. The collaborations and partnerships that exist between the university and external organisations on climate action were also examined during the study. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with a range of key informants (community members, academics, students and non-government organisations). The broad aim of the interviews and focus groups was to establish respondents' views on the role of universities in responding to climate change through and beyond the teaching, research, community engagement and public awareness functions. This was in order to determine the extent to which universities can themselves be transformed in order to respond to the climate crisis, as well as transform the marginalised communities surrounding universities. The qualitative case studies formed part of the broader research method for the project – participatory action research (PAR). Not all of the participating universities made formal data collection of interviews and focus groups as part of the PAR. Qualitative data from four of the participating institutions are included in this dataset. We now turn to a description of the quantitative data collection. A survey on climate change was conducted in twelve universities in Brazil, Fiji, Kenya and Mozambique. The survey examined the experiences of students, their engagement in climate action and their attitudes towards environmental issues. It responded to the overall aim of the project, which was to generate insights into how to maximise the contribution of universities to the mitigation and adaptation challenges of climate change, and to understand how universities might contribute to climate justice. To this end, the survey aimed to assess students’ perceptions and experiences regarding climate change and their universities, and their environmental attitudes. It was designed to be internationally comparable and to draw on existing work and questions, so a number of previous surveys and studies were reviewed in the process of drafting our questionnaire.Climate change is widely recognised as the most critical challenge of our age, with the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report suggesting that to avoid devastating effects, the world must move entirely to renewables by 2050. This project aims to strengthen the contribution of universities in lower-income countries to addressing this challenge. The role of research and innovation in this task is widely acknowledged, and universities around the world are closely involved in the tasks of monitoring, interpreting and responding to the process and effects of global warming. Yet the broader role of universities in addressing the climate crisis is as yet under-researched. How do courses provided by universities address the question of climate change, and what forms of climate-related learning do students engage with on campus and beyond? What impacts do universities have on climate change through community engagement activities, in fostering public debate on the issue and in the way they embody the principles of sustainability in their own institutional forms? These roles of universities beyond knowledge production are critical in addressing climate change, given the deep social, political and economic roots of the crisis, and the need to engage with professional development, civic action and public awareness. At the same time, it is clear that despite the potentialities of universities in this regard, much more could be done.

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