Abstract
PurposeSince 2006, higher education institutions (HEIs) in Sweden, should according to the Higher Education Act, promote sustainable development (SD). In 2016, the Swedish Government asked the Swedish higher education authority to evaluate how this study is proceeding. The authority chose to focus on education. This paper aims to produce a report on this evaluation.Design/methodology/approachAll 47 HEIs in Sweden were asked to write a self-evaluation report based on certain evaluation criteria. A panel was appointed consisting of academics and representatives for students and working life. The panel wrote an evaluation of each HEI, a report on general findings and recommendations, and gave an overall judgement of each HEI in two classes as follows: the HEI has well-developed processes for integration of SD in education or the HEI needs to develop their processes.FindingsOverall, a mixed picture developed. Most HEIs could give examples of programmes or courses where SD was integrated. However, less than half of the HEIs had overarching goals for integration of SD in education or had a systematic follow-up of these goals. Even fewer worked specifically with pedagogy and didactics, teaching and learning methods and environments, sustainability competences or other characters of education for SD. Overall, only 12 out of 47 got a higher judgement.Originality/valueThis is a unique study in which all HEIs in a country are evaluated. This provides unique possibilities for identifying success factors and barriers. The importance of the leadership of the HEIs became clear.
Highlights
The integration of sustainable development (SD) in the activities of higher education institutions (HEIs) has been on the agenda for a long time (Gough and Scott, 2007)
Since 2006, there has been a section in the Swedish Higher Education Act stating that: In the course of their operations, higher education institutions shall promote sustainable development to assure for present and future generations a sound and healthy environment, economic and social welfare, and justice (Swedish Council for Higher Education, 2015)
From the general introduction of the self-assessment reports, it was clear that the HEIs started their work on SD in education at different times and used, and partly proceeded, from different assumptions
Summary
The integration of sustainable development (SD) in the activities of higher education institutions (HEIs) has been on the agenda for a long time (Gough and Scott, 2007). It can be noted that it provides a definition of SD emphasizing economic, environmental and social aspects of SD It is largely in line not identical to the classical definition of SD in the Brundtland Commission (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). The Swedish higher education authority chose to only focus on education and to frame the evaluation as a “thematic evaluation”, which is one of the types of evaluations that the authority does. This type of evaluation is done for the purpose of benchmarking and learning.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
