Sustainability has become one of the buzzwords of higher education in recent years, leading to a raft of strategies, initiatives, and even rankings. However, there are significant gaps in the knowledge base, with research focusing mainly on curricular interventions and campus operations, and the changes in practice have often been superficial. In order to fulfill its potential in addressing the socio-environmental crisis, a deeper transformation is needed in the university’s role as a knowledge institution and in its relationships with society.

Since the turn of the millennium, sustainability has become one of the key narratives shaping practice and research in higher education. Universities are increasingly using ideas of sustainability—and specifically the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015—as a reference point for their activities, including mapping existing work, aligning new initiatives, and evaluating impact. These developments have been encouraged by the emergence of sustainability-focused ranking and assessment tools, for example Green Metric, QS’s Sustainability Ranking, and Times Higher Education’s Impact Ranking. There are also a growing number of international associations promoting sustainability in the sector, including the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and University Leaders for a Sustainable Future.

Yet this rising agenda is not without its complexities, sceptics, and detractors. The term “sustainability” itself is notoriously vague, and can be used in ways that seem contradictory to the intention (for example, the financial sustainability of an environmentally-destructive corporation). There have been criticisms of “greenwashing,” with institutions publicizing their environmental credentials for the purposes of market benefits and student recruitment. Conversely, there are those who oppose the agenda altogether, on the grounds that it is too politicized for a nonpartisan institution like the university, that it is a passing fad or—more radically—that concerns about climate change and associated ecological threats are overblown.

Research in this area has grown apace with its increasing prominence in practice. A systematic review carried out by the Climate-U project showed an increase in publications on university responses to the climate crisis from just one article a year in Web of Science journals in 2003 and 2004 to 24 a year in 2018 and 2019. There is even a dedicated publication in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Most of the research literature has focused on the integration of sustainability into university curricula and campus operations. In relation to the former, there has been a predominance of appreciative case studies (of the “me and my classroom” type), showing inspiring examples of practice on a small scale, but not necessarily accompanied by significant evidence of impact or of the factors underpinning it. Literature on the operations of institutions has focused on carbon emissions, divestment from fossil fuels, and efforts at greening campuses. There has been much less attention to the shaping of research agendas, the contributions of higher education to public debate, and their engagement with external communities, all vital parts of higher education’s contribution to addressing the crisis.

Future Directions

In summary, both action and research on sustainability in higher education have increased rapidly in recent years. Yet the transformation of institutions needs to be much deeper than that seen to date. There are five areas in particular in which attention is needed. The first of these relates to connections. A much closer understanding is needed of the ways in which initiatives in different areas of the university interact, between curriculum, research, campus operations, and public engagement. Moreover, synergies need to be sought between the sustainability learning (of students) that takes place within institutions and the learning of the institution itself in becoming a sustainable university.

Second, this article has assumed thus far a direction of influence emanating from the university to the natural environment, but the worsening environmental impacts will unfortunately bring more attention to the threats directly facing universities. These will be direct—through wildfires, floods, rising sea levels, and extreme weather—but will also be indirect, for example, through financial constraints.

A transformation is also needed in the ways in which universities carry out research on climate. Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary perspectives are needed, and coproduction of knowledge with communities, at best underpinned by a dialogue between academic knowledge and diverse forms of indigenous and local knowledge.

Building on the point above, a far greater geographical diversification is needed in terms of voices, contributions, and perspectives. The climate crisis and other sustainability challenges will only be solved through vibrant higher education systems in all countries, as well as collaboration between them.

Finally, the university sector needs to have a “constructive” as well as a “projective” and “expressive” role, critiquing and reimagining the meaning and manifestations of sustainability. The university sector needs to be at the forefront of public debates on the future of the SDGs after 2030, and the forms of social organization that will allow us to live together and thrive as a species.

Tristan McCowan is professor of international education at the Institute of Education, University College London, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected].