Barriers and Enablers to Sustainability in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of Governance, Leadership, and Organisational Change
Year: 2026
Type: review
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to advance sustainability through teaching, research, campus operations, and public engagement, yet implementation remains uneven. This systematic review synthesises the literature on barriers and enablers to sustainability in higher education through the lenses of governance, leadership, and organisational change. Following PRISMA 2020 reporting principles, peer-reviewed studies published between 2005 and 2025 were searched in Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and ERIC, yielding a final corpus of 87 articles. The review finds that fragmented governance, weak accountability, reliance on individual champions, disciplinary silos, and project-based implementation continue to be recurrent barriers. By contrast, whole-institution strategies, distributed leadership, participatory change processes, and integration into planning and reporting systems consistently enable progress. An integrative framework is proposed to explain how these mechanisms interact in the process of sustainability institutionalisation. The review concludes with practical implications for university leaders and policymakers seeking more durable sustainability transitions.
Source: Journal of Sustainability
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7164374236