Purpose: Integrating sustainability into university curricula brings diverse challenges and conflicts as separate units vie for ownership of courses and topics. This case study presents a six dimensions sustainability framework developed at The Ohio State University to organize curricula under an inclusive strategy. Design/methodology/approach: An…

Purpose: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established by the UN in 2015 as an international call to action to end poverty, protect the environment, and ensure that everyone will live in peace and prosperity by the year 2030. (UNDP, 2015). Out of the 17 Goals, Goal 4 talks about "ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education…

Purpose: Recognising that there is increasing urgency to equip graduates to become future leaders in delivering the sustainable development goals (SDGs), this study presents a critical analysis of a whole-institution approach to embedding education for sustainable development (ESD) in curricula. This study aims to explore the wider reach of…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the current state of education for sustainable development (ESD) at Chemnitz University of Technology (CUT) and to propose a guide for analysing sustainability at higher education institutions (HEI) in terms of implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and sustainability dimensions in the…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the contribution of higher education institutions (HEIs) to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and propose strategies to cultivate a culture centred on the SDGs in HEIs. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology used encompassed an integrative literature review, combining bibliographic analysis on…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential for implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the civil engineering bachelor degree in the School of Civil Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). Design/methodology/approach: All the 2019/2020 course syllabi were analyzed to diagnose at which extent…

Purpose: This study aims to determine how sustainable development (SD) demands (according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) SD themes from 2005) are connected to the contents of education, research, development and innovation (RDI) in higher education institutions (HEI). Education and the RDI nexus may affect HEI's…

Purpose: Humanity is facing an unprecedented challenge of climate crises. Rapid changes to the physical environment and living conditions will be accompanied by challenges to mental health and well-being. Consequently, education for sustainable development should also include coping strategies for stress and anxiety. Adding intra-personal skills…

Purpose: This study aims to explore the alignment between strategic plans of the Portuguese public higher education institutions (HEIs) and their perception of the integration of sustainability in education and curricula. Design/methodology/approach: The strategic plans from 15 institutions were selected for content analysis; data about the…

Purpose: This purpose of this study is to explore the integration of the sustainable development concept and goals into the curriculum of higher education studies using the example of three faculties of the University of Belgrade. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative content analysis has been applied on two levels: the evaluation of the…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the presence of sustainability in 16 Spanish higher education curricula in the fields of education and engineering. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology uses two instruments: sustainability map and sustainability presence map. These instruments enable analysis of the number of subjects that develop…

Purpose: Literature limited in scope regarding the incorporation of sustainability into engineering curriculum encouraged authors to look at the current approaches of universities to the integration of sustainability into university curricula. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the literature published and analyse the university secondary…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how the process of creating and implementing sustainability competencies across a university illuminate dynamics of organizational change. The push to advance education for sustainable development in higher education will likely require transformation of existing policies and practices. A set of…

Purpose: Energy poverty can be seen as a relatively new, but typical sustainability problem in which various dimensions (ecology, society and economy) are interlinked and in part conflict with each other. Moreover, the variety of involved stakeholders (planners, tenants, housing companies, private landlords, energy consultants, etc.) represents…

Purpose: Higher education institutions increasingly have gained momentum in integrating sustainability into university curricula. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the approval, implementation and management process of the new university-wide, general education requirement in sustainability at the University of Vermont (UVM). The intent is…