Sustainable universities – a study of critical success factors for participatory approaches

Abstract

Participatory approaches can be seen as a requirement, but also as a benefit to the overall paradigm change towards sustainable development and contribute towards the integration of sustainability concept into the university culture. So far, there have been comparatively few research studies on participation within sustainability implementation at university level, and a more differentiated understanding of these processes is still missing, both in the practice of conducting a participatory process and in the sustainability assessment. This paper addresses some of the failures and successes experienced within participatory approaches in campus sustainability initiatives, and deduces a set of critical success factors and emergent clusters that can help to integrate the dimensions of participation more inclusively into sustainability assessment. Following a qualitative approach and inspired by the Delphi method, semi-structured expert interviews (N¼ 15) and four focus group discussions (N¼ 36), with participants coming from twenty different countries in total, were conducted and compared according to qualitative content analysis. Findings give empirical evidence to some of the characteristics related to stakeholder engagement, and associate higher education for sustainable development to empowerment and capacity building, shifting away from a previous focus on environmental sustainability. The success of participatory approaches is interdependent with structural institutional conditions and the persons engaged, highlighting the importance of specific skills and participatory competencies. A better integration of the dimensions of participation into sustainability assessment practices can help in defining and establishing participatory approaches on institutional level and fostering a culture of participation in the transition to sustainable universities. .

Stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting in higher education

“…In these hierarchical environments, participatory processes are clearly positive in order to meet social demands. In literature, a growing number of studies focus on the benefits of participatory approaches in HEIs to contribute towards the integration of sustainability in their missions, values and activities and tools that encourage an effective participatory stakeholder engagement (Reed et al 2009;Disterheft et al, 2015a;Disterheft et al, 2015b;Disterheft et al, 2016).…”

Enhancing Education for Sustainable Development in Environmental University Programmes: A Co-Creation Approach

“…Participation is also explored in the HESD context, as [12] (p. 1) mention, becoming a request to achieve sustainable development in HEI, and it "contributes towards the integration of sustainability concept into the university culture." Hence, co-creation, co-design and co-production of sustainability in higher education is possible to achieve through the engagement of the stakeholders involved, and specially, students.…”

“…It has been shown that students, as one of the key stakeholders in university processes, need to be empowered to implement successfully SD in HE [12]. Also, it has been identified some strategic fields to redirected the organizational change for HESD, been among them "institutional commitment, shared vision of the future, sustainability indicator reporting, participatory management structures and external partnerships" [72] (p. 700); consequently, the participatory approach constitutes a key element.…”

“…Taking into account this transformative perspective, it is necessary to redirect the resources and the relationship among the stakeholders involved in higher education institutions (HEI) [11] and to reshape teaching and learning processes based on the principles of sustainability [12]. Under this new concept, the institutions must encourage communication and dialogue on sustainable topics, reorienting them towards new strategic models.…”

Investigating the Relationship between Positive Self-Concept and Success of Academic Staffs at University of Guilan, Iran

“…According to (Church et al, 2012), the results provide support for integrating trait and cultural psychology perspectives, as well as structure and process approaches, in the study of self-concepts across cultures. Disterheft et al (2015) mentioned the success of participatory approaches is interdependent with structural institutional conditions and the persons engaged, highlighting the importance of specific skills and participatory competencies. A better integration of the dimensions of participation into sustainability assessment practices can help in defining and establishing participatory approaches on institutional level and fostering a culture of participation in the transition to sustainable universities.…”