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Open research questions in Sustainability in Higher Education

719 gap statements mined from Sustainability in Higher Education papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 5,855 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Future research should explore how combining our digital approach with place-based education (Gruenewald, 2003; Sobel, 2004), such as field-based ecological inquiry or campus garden activities, can produce synergistic learning outcomes and enrich the transformative dimensions of Education for Sustainable Development (Wals, 2014).

    Boosting Sustainable Action: Co-Designing Interactive Visualizations to Bridge Awareness Gaps in Universities · 2026 · DOI

  • However, further research is needed to assess the impact of such CPD processes and the extent to which this form of (2025) discuss, there is a need to address a current knowledge gap in understanding how Norwegian schools, responsible for multiple interdisciplinary teaching and educational change requirements related to sustainability, can be better supported.

    Co-developing professional learning practices in support of a whole school approach to sustainability-oriented education · 2026 · DOI

  • While the follow-up (S3-FU) wave supports assessing short-term maintenance of perceived competences, it is insufficient for claims about long-term retention or for any inference about sustained behavioral change.

    The Art Nouveau Path: Longitudinal Analysis of Students’ Perceptions of Sustainability Competence Development Through a Mobile Augmented Reality Game · 2026 · DOI

  • Although the present study develops the UL-WMF through structured qualitative synthesis of regulatory, technological, and governance mechanisms reported in the literature, its operational performance has not yet been evaluated through pilot-scale institutional implementation.

    Integrated Governance Model for Monitoring Potable Water Quality and Laboratory Effluents in Universities · 2026 · DOI

  • Priorities include developing a concise, transferable KPI set linking governance, pedagogy, operations and SDG outcomes (with equity), and assessing how digital infrastructures (dashboards, AI) mediate monitoring and feedback under robust data-ethics safeguards across regions and institutional types, especially under-studied contexts.

    From Commitment to Integration: A Systematic Review of Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should examine the applicability of the proposed framework across other Central Asian countries and emerging higher education systems to assess its broader analytical value. These overlapping transformations create institutional conditions rarely examined within existing scholarship.

    Green Labels, Global Rankings or Green Systems? Universities, Their Sustainability Maturity and Diverse Pathways Toward National Green Transition · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should examine the applicability of the SOIL framework across diverse educational contexts and explore how sustainability initiatives become institutionalized over time through longitudinal and multi-stakeholder investigations.

    Competencies for Institutionalizing Sustainability-Oriented Instructional Leadership in Schools · 2026 · DOI

  • The need for a framework that integrates system modelling, vulnerability analysis, restoration strategies, and constrained network design. The lack of a four-phase sequence for sustainability-oriented discrete mathematics. The need for a teaching sequence that incorporates specified mathematical objectives, computational artefacts, and decision-making tasks for undergraduate discrete mathematics.

    R4-Graph: Integrating Sustainability into Discrete Mathematics Education Through Resilience-Oriented Graph Theory · 2026 · DOI

  • To ensure the effective implementation of the SDGs, particularly SDG 4, and to achieve lasting impact, urgent attention must be given to under-explored research areas when integrating them into educational curricula.

    Exploring Sustainable Development Goals and Curriculum Adoption: A Scoping Review from 2020–2025 · 2025 · DOI

  • The difference between self-reported and scored responses may explain this discrepancy and warrants further exploration.

    Bridging STEM Education and Sustainability: Insights from Pennsylvania Educators · 2025 · DOI

  • While this study offers valuable insights into the agency of secondary technical education students, its findings are limited by the ad-hoc sample, methodological limitations and lack of qualitative data.

    Student Agency as an Enabler in Cultivating Sustainable Competencies for People-Oriented Technical Professions · 2025 · DOI

  • Building on the current findings, future research should explore longitudinal approaches to better understand how well-being dynamics evolve over time for mature-aged students in STEM.

    Addressing the Challenges of STEM Mature-Aged Students: Faculty Role in Promoting Sustainability and Well-Being in Higher Education · 2025 · DOI

  • Future studies could explore the validation of the model across different regions and cultures, examining its applicability and effectiveness in real teaching and learning scenarios. Furthermore, the lack of direct empirical validation of the proposed model within specific educational environments is a constraint that warrants attention in future research.

    Critical Soft Skills for Sustainability in Higher Education: A Multi-Phase Qualitative Study · 2025 · DOI

  • Both cases revealed common challenges, including limited resources, infrastructure gaps, and curriculum rigidity, that necessitate ongoing adaptation and support from educators and institutions.

    Developing Sustainability Competencies Through Active Learning Strategies Across School and University Settings · 2025 · DOI

  • The employment of renewable energies for water and wastewater treatment technologies and for water supply should be considered as well to reduce the indirect adverse effect of sustainable water measures on other aspects of universities’ sustainability.

    Towards a Structured Approach to Advance Sustainable Water Management in Higher Education Institutions: A Review · 2025 · DOI

  • In further research, the approaches described in this review shall be tailored to design a framework that will support incorporating sustainability principles and strategies within HEIs.

    Fostering a Whole-Institution Approach to Sustainability through Systems Thinking: An Analysis of the State-of-the-Art in Sustainability Integration in Higher Education Institutions · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the mediating or moderating roles of other variables, such as environmental literacy or specific situational factors, in the relationship between the TPB constructs and sustainability intentions. For researchers, the unique findings on perceived behavioral control invite further investigation into how this construct operates within the sustainability context.

    Sustainability Integration in Philippine Higher Education Curricula: A Structural Equation Modeling Assessing Teacher Intention to Integrate · 2024 · DOI

  • This extends accountability theory by demonstrating that transparency alone is insufficient to produce meaningful accountability outcomes unless it is accompanied by clearly assigned responsibilities and mechanisms for follow-up and enforcement.

    From dashboards to decisions: how digital technologies reshape environmental accountability in universities · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should examine these capacities longitudinally by following the same students across the undergraduate experience and documenting the curricular and pedagogical experiences they encounter over time.

    Scaffolding the Inner Curriculum: Supporting Students’ Capacity to Engage Complexity, Uncertainty, and Societal Challenges in Higher Education · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research is needed to establish links between community-driven and technology-supported approaches and tangible sustainability outcomes. While efforts to develop sustainability competencies through teacher training and student engagement show promise, they are sometimes limited by a lack of depth and inadequate educator preparation.

    Exploring Sustainable Development Goals and Curriculum Adoption: A Scoping Review from 2020–2025 · 2025 · DOI

  • Future research should examine long-term learning impacts, explore digital enhancements to the format, and assess how such hybrid models of sustainability education perform across diverse learner populations and institutional settings.

    A Participatory Workshop Design for Engaging Young People in IT Sustainability · 2025 · DOI

  • “I would define sustainability as responsible use of natural resources today to preserve them for future generations” “I believe it is using natural resources in a reasonable manner that they are available for current and future generations”.

    Bridging STEM Education and Sustainability: Insights from Pennsylvania Educators · 2025 · DOI

  • In this scenario, it is necessary to materialise the introduction of the SDGs in the curricula of engineering degrees following a systemic approach (RQ1); design multidisciplinary experiences, intertwining several subjects, which engage students (RQ2) and make students aware that the skills acquired during the degree may help them to design and develop sustainability related projects in their future professional…

    A Methodology to Introduce Sustainable Development Goals in Engineering Degrees by Means of Multidisciplinary Projects · 2024 · DOI

  • This paper analyzes how higher education institutions impact sustainability and its associated challenges, highlighting their decisive role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in targets related to poverty, health, gender equality, decent employment, responsible consumption, climate change and justice.

    Advancing University Education: Exploring the Benefits of Education for Sustainable Development · 2024 · DOI

  • Finally, as a narrative overview, this paper does not quantify effect sizes or compare the relative efficacy of different pedagogical strategies, leaving open questions about which systems thinking interventions yield…

    Integrating Systems Thinking into Sustainability Education: An Overview with Educator-Focused Guidance · 2025 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Sustainability in Higher Education

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research should examine the applicability of the proposed framework across other Central Asian countries and emerging higher education systems to assess its broader analytical value (“Green Labels, Global Rankings or Green Systems? Universities, Their…”, 2026); (2) The lack of a four-phase sequence for sustainability-oriented discrete mathematics (“R4-Graph: Integrating Sustainability into Discrete Mathematics Education…”, 2026); (3) Future research should examine these capacities longitudinally by following the same students across the undergraduate experience and documenting the curricular and pedagogical experiences they encounter over time (“Scaffolding the Inner Curriculum: Supporting Students’ Capacity to Engage…”, 2026); (4) Building on the current findings, future research should explore longitudinal approaches to better understand how well-being dynamics evolve over time for mature-aged students in STEM (“Addressing the Challenges of STEM Mature-Aged Students: Faculty Role in…”, 2025); (5) Future studies could explore the validation of the model across different regions and cultures, examining its applicability and effectiveness in real teaching and learning scenarios (“Critical Soft Skills for Sustainability in Higher Education: A Multi-Phase…”, 2025). 719 gap statements have been mined from Sustainability in Higher Education papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 5,855 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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