Can Higher Education Institutions’ Stakeholders Drive Regional Sustainable Development? Yes, They Can?!

Abstract

Although Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) develop and announce actions related to sustainable development (SD), these actions and the results achieved are often not perceived by their stakeholders. This article aims to analyse how the SD of HEIs can contribute to better development and regional transformation, through the promotion of sustainable practices with effects on the regional environment. To do so, an exploratory quantitative analysis, with a sample of 1325 stakeholders collected from seven Portuguese public HEIs, using a multinomial logistic regression, was carried out. The results indicate that HEIs’ stakeholders pay attention to sustainability practices, and that regional development and the sustainability of the region of influence can emerge positively from the links found between these two variables and the dimensions of SD in the HEIs studied. The contributions and implications of these results can be seen from the perspective of HEIs, because it shows that both students and lecturers/researchers are aware of and value this type of practice by the institution, and HEIs must create strategies integrating stakeholders more actively in sustainable practices through the development of sustainable skills and competences, and from the regional policy perspective, given the potential and importance of HEIs as integrated actors within their region of influence.