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Higher education and its leadership are not yet using their potential impact for a sustainable future. This paper aims to focus on UN developments and the long history of university involvement in sustainability might create more interest and understanding that sustainably oriented universities are actually possible and a much stronger role for higher education is needed when nations are discussing their future.

Literature review with a focus on international treaties and declarations on the UN level and international university networks, literature review of the background and potential of the whole-institution approach and the need/suggestions for further research, also to measure advancement.

History shows a strong engagement of higher education with sustainability from its beginnings. There have been strong calls/offers from within university networks to take a crucial role in moving towards sustainable development that involves more than teaching about sustainability. The international community calls for higher education to be involved in policymaking rather than simply implementation, have been limited and the full potential of higher education institutions using all opportunities such as being living labs for sustainability has not as yet been realized. Currently, calls for engagement are often still limited to training and providing research when scientific evidence is wanted.

Literature review focused on UN level treaties/declarations English- and German-language review national developments limited to samples of members of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 subcluster in the Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD) Global Cluster by the International Association of Universities (IAU).

Guidance for university leaders and other stakeholders to become aware of and consider a whole-institution approach. Practitioner relevance as countries is encouraged to embed UN recommendations, treaties and declarations. Defining opportunities for further research. Presenting the HESD Cluster by the IAU as a sample for new approaches of higher education to interact with the SDGs.

Strengthening the role of higher education in the pursuit of a better future would focus on science and research as a neutral basis for decision-making and policy development. Sustainability embedded in all streams of university can help universities to be a practical example of the possibilities of sustainability at work.

Composition of authors with UN background and involvement. Focus on UN treaties/declarations and guidance for academics and practitioners in leadership on adopted UN and other international documents. Summarizing the background of the whole-institution approach as a genuine development over time but including limitations and implications for future roles for higher education leadership. IAU SDG 4 Subcluster is unique in its own approach and with its connections to a global network of higher education institutions and UNESCO.

Numerous policy announcements and articles have been produced over the past 20 years calling for higher education institutions to give greater focus to social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability in their curriculum, research, engagement activities and operations. However, there has been much less attention given to establishing how to ensure these desired developments are successfully initiated, implemented and sustained. It is to these key areas of effective change management, leadership, support and governance for embedding sustainability into the core activities of higher education institutions through transformation that this special issue of Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) gives focus. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper brings together a consolidated analysis of the existing empirical literature on effective change management and leadership in higher education transformation with particular focus on the results of a recent international empirical study of 188 experienced leaders of sustainability in universities in Australia, the UK, the European Mainland, North America and South Africa.

The paper brings together the case for action in the sector, identifies an integrating framework for addressing sustainable development in the university curriculum, research, engagement activities and operations consistently, comprehensively through a whole institutional approach and identifies the key challenges and lessons on effective change management and leadership for sustainability transformation initiatives in universities and colleges.

Higher education institutions often give more attention to discussing what should change in their provision than to ensuring that desired transformations are actually put into practice effectively, sustainably and with positive impact. This paper and the articles which follow seek to address this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of the Graduate School of Business at Univeristi Sains Malaysia (USM) in developing the new MBA programme, specialising in sustainable development.

This paper describes the urgency for a source of education for sustainable development, particularly in the Malaysian business context. The justifications and rationale for incorporating sustainability issues in postgraduate business education is also described in this paper. Additionally, the process involved in developing the programme is also explained.

This is the first programme of its kind in Malaysia. USM, which aims to be a sustainability led university, has introduced many significant changes. One of the significant initiatives is to develop an MBA programme that specialises in sustainable development. This programme aims to be the catalyst for changes to sustainability from the business context. The whole process appeared to gain support from the University community with less bureaucratic challenges than were anticipated.

This paper provides various examples and ideas for others on how to promote sustainable development for the business community, with a focus on the contribution that can be made by a University.

This is the first effort contribution to the education for sustainable development for business in a less developed country.

This article aims to provide a perspective on sustainability reporting and performance management in the university sector making a case for increased accountability, improved (management of) performance and greater innovation in approach.

The author provides a personal perspective drawing on experience in sustainability standard setting and as a sustainability researcher, advisor and practitioner in the university sector and others.

The paper finds that university practice in sustainability reporting and performance management significantly lags other sectors and falls far short of optimising the potential of the sector to influence transformational change through knowledge transfer.

The paper suggests some areas for further research.

This article makes a case for increased sustainability performance management and reporting in universities arguing that it would lead to increased accountability and improved performance. It calls for social, environmental and economic sustainability to integrated into university processes. The paper has implications for university policy makers and regulators.

Little attention has been paid to the university sector in the sustainability reporting and social responsibility literature or indeed in recognised standards for sustainability reporting and management.

The purpose of this paper is to assist the United Nations Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) in continuing their fundamental work within the region and to address some of the prominent challenges within the RCE community. Specific RCE case studies from the global network were employed, emphasizing experiences in collaboration with multiple stakeholders including higher education institutions.

Conducting a literature review and employing a qualitative research methodology with the use of a guided questionnaire, the paper aims to gain a deeper understanding of the operations of RCEs in general and more specifically the case studies.

The paper shows some of the strategies implemented by the cohort of case studies to overcome their common challenges. Key recommendations based on the findings are made in its quest for continual development and final conclusions assessing the contentious challenges are drawn.

This paper focuses on RCEs within Europe, with cases from the USA and Canada for comparison. Although the paper highlights common themes and challenges, it is highly probable that RCEs outside of the studied regions may contend with similar challenges; further research would have to be conducted to assess the wider scope of the situation.

The paper gives an external perspective of the challenges faced and identifies some areas in which improvements could be made. It is also generated from information gathered from multi-case study RCEs.

The aim of this paper is to measure students' perception towards sustainable development (SD) concept. The paper highlights students' perception before and after joining Heliopolis University (HU). Also, the research underscores different activities, facilities and methods HU is implementing to sharpen the delivery of SD concept. Furthermore, the study emphasizes on the extent to which students are anticipating implementing SD concept in their life.

The research paper is an exploratory qualitative research design. The sample frame was the database of HU. A non-probability convenient sampling approach was applied to select 26 elements of the study. In-depth personal interviews were conducted. Questions were coded to facilitate analysis and to link respondents' answers with different questions. Accordingly, 12 structured open-ended questions were designed to gain clear insights regarding students' awareness of SD. Personal interviews took place at the end of fall semester 2012.

Students' responses were classified into observations and realization, needs and suggestions, and future plans. All students confirmed interest to apply SD in their lives.

This research is limited only to HU students, which is considered a limitation of the research findings. Another limitation is that the study is an exploratory qualitative research, which could be enhanced if a conclusive design is applied. However, both limitations are considered within the context of conducting future research. One is related to the expansion of the sample frame to include more diversified students, and the other to conduct a conclusive research for fine-tuning the results and recommendations.

The paper's value stems from measuring multi-disciplinary freshmen perception regarding SD concept at HU, which is the first non-for-profit university in Egypt and the Middle East declaring SD as its overall guiding principle and specialization. Moreover, the paper provides insights on SD concept from a developing country perspective.

A student-led department greening competition brought significant change to certain departments at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. The purpose of the paper is to help sustainability groups at other tertiary education institutions to organize similar competitions.

First, the approach and methodology of the competition are explained in detail. Second, results of the competition in the first three years are summarized. Third, opportunities for improvement are discussed. Fourth, potentials and limitations are reviewed. Finally, the most important success criteria are listed.

Eight weeks of assisted learning and two audit-based assessments are appropriate to facilitate the greening process of departments. To successfully organize a competition, a reliable team with a core group of at least five to six experienced members is needed. Maximal effectiveness can only be achieved if local environmental leaders at departments are activated.

If local environmental leaders act as internal project managers, environmental practices can change significantly. Improvements can affect material and energy use, transportation behavior and external outreach activities.

The project description shows a structure for how to engage in greening departments. A consistent rubric was applied across multiple departments over a span of three years, which allows for drawing general conclusions. Insights can facilitate similarly effective projects elsewhere.

Research on sustainability in higher education has focused on environmental management of the university campus, case studies and examples of good practice. Although the value and contribution of these initiatives has been articulated, little holistic and structural transformation of universities has been achieved so far. This paper aims to explore different theoretical frameworks to better understand and improve the effectiveness of organisational change processes towards sustainability in universities.

The combination of different theoretical approaches on organisational learning such as organisational learning theory, the idea of expansive learning at work, the ideal of the learning organisation and transformative learning theory are reviewed in this paper. These ideas in combination with leadership for sustainability and education for sustainability lead to an integrative model that links theory and practice, cultural and social aspects influencing learning, and the ability of individuals to critically reflect and challenge existing worldviews to learn and develop new practices.

The theoretical foundations and model presented seek to provide useful theoretical basis with which to better understand the process of transformation towards sustainability in higher education. This involves a continuous process of learning to rethink existing practices and worldviews by individuals within the organisation, which lead to community learning, which in turn lead to organisational learning. Six key implications for action have also been identified.

Little research exists that uses organisational learning to inform the design and development of the research reporting on the achievements, opportunities and challenges emerged during the change process towards embedding sustainability in higher education. The suggested framework is envisaged as an integrative theoretical framework that can help understand the “how to”, thus the learning processes associated with embedding sustainability in the core activities of universities.

Higher education is one of the key sectors in any economy that plays a major role in the sustainability and enhancement of the society. Hence, the new reform program in the European higher education aims to create a quality culture within the universities. This paper presents a conceptual contribution as a way to improve the social sustainability performance within the higher education institutions (HEIs) in Europe.

The paper starts with an overview of the Polish higher education system as an example of a European country implementing the European Standards and Guidelines in higher education. This is followed by a comprehensive literature review of the quality assurance (QA) policies in order to identify the main players who are working to build trust and sustainability in higher education. The literature review ends with a link between the perceived benefits of QA and the behavior of the students, namely students' involvement in QA activities. The research is composed of two exploratory studies. The first exploratory research was conducted with the objective of identifying the Polish higher education market. The second exploratory study was conducted to meet the main players in the European QA organizations, to be able to understand the overall European experience.

The literature reviews, as well as the results of the two exploratory studies, lead to the development of a proposed conceptual framework. The paper ends with the implications for management action and suggestions for future empirical work.

This paper presents a conceptual contribution to the perception of the students to the QA activities as a way to improve the social sustainability performance within the HEIs in Europe.