A critical analysis of sustainability indicators for education and curricula in higher education institutions and their adaptation to the Portuguese context

The sustainability assessment within Higher Education Institutions (HEI) serves as a critical learning and capacity-building tool, fostering reflection on sustainability initiatives and advancing alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Current sustainability assessment tools include various indicators across different dimensions of sustainability implementation within HEI. However, there is a significant gap in categorising specific indicators relevant to learning and curricula. In line with a recent initiative by the Sustainable Campus Network (RCS) in Portugal, this study aims to analyse how existing sustainability assessment tools address indicators within the domains of education and curricula. The research aims to identify and categorise indicators relevant to the education and curricula dimension, offering a preliminary list complemented by implementation examples. This analysis draws on a variety of available sustainability assessment tools for HEI. This goal is part of a broader research context in future development of sustainability indicators to systematically assess and monitor sustainability practices within Portuguese HEI. A systematic literature review was done to extract the education and curricula indicators from two key sources (i) existing sustainability assessment tools used globally, and (ii) existing sustainability reports of Portuguese HEI. As a result, 216 “education and curricula” indicators were collected, laying a solid foundation for further analysis and application in the Portuguese HEI context. The indicators were grouped into four different categories, Teaching, Learning, Outreach, and Administrative and Organisational Framework. Within the Portuguese context, only 13 sustainability reports were analysed (out of 97 HEI), in which six institutions addressed the ‘education’ category, primarily focusing on the number of courses, subjects, research initiatives, and projects aligned with the SDG. Although the present analysis was limited to publicly available sustainability reports, which may not fully reflect the breadth of initiatives undertaken by HEI, the findings highlight a significant gap in sustainability reporting among Portuguese HEI. The results of this study are expected to guide HEI towards more effective integration and promotion of a global culture of sustainability within the domains of curricula and education.

Description

Keywords

Higher education institutions (HEI) Sustainability indicators Sustainable development goals (SDG) SDG 4 Sustainable campus network (RCS) Portugal Education and curricula

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10284/14542

Citation

APA7th: Rigueiro, M. C. S., Caeiro, S., Câmara, P., Fonseca, A., Godinho, T., Mapar, M., Moreira, A. M., Dinis, M. A. P., Farinha, C. S., Simão, J., & Silva, M. V. d. (2025). A Critical Analysis of Sustainability Indicators for Education and Curricula in Higher Education Institutions and Their Adaptation to the Portuguese Context. In W. L. Filho, L. V. Trevisan, P. J. Pace, & M. Mifsud (Eds.), Education for Sustainable Development: The Contribution of Universities (pp. 465–488). Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-86985-3_28