Engaging stakeholders in the process of sustainability integration in higher education institutions: a systematic review

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are facing increasing pressure embracing institutional change towards the adoption of sustainable development (SD). Responding to the growing demands, several articles have been published presenting integration of SD principles in higher education policies and practices. A review of such articles published during the decade of education for sustainable development is presented in this paper. The paper also studied stakeholder engagement in sustainability integration process in university curriculum, campus operations, research, outreach and reporting. The findings revealed that most of the published articles focus on courses and curriculum with little research in sustainability reporting, though deemed to be the most critical factor dealing with stakeholder interests. Moreover, the papers concentrated on internal stakeholders undermining the role of external stakeholders in higher education for sustainable development. The paper suggests a paradigm shift towards engaging each and every stakeholder in the integration process of sustainable development in HEIs. Furthermore, the research contributes to the existing literature on higher education for sustainable development (HESD) by mere structural changes and proposes a deliberate endeavour to focus stakeholders' intrinsic behavioural factors for expeditious and holistic implementation of sustainable development across HEIs.