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Sustainability in Higher Education

Sustainability in Higher Education is a research topic within Education. Science Explorer counts 9.6k research works in it since 1954. 10.4% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on sustainability education within higher education institutions, addressing the development of competencies, curriculum integration, and the institutionalization of sustainability. It explores topics such as transformative learning, leadership for sustainability, and the incorporation of sustainable development goals into educational outcomes.

  • Sustainability Education
  • Higher Education
  • Competencies
  • Curriculum
  • Sustainable Development Goals
  • Institutionalization
  • Environmental Management
  • Transformative Learning
  • Leadership for Sustainability
  • Assessment Tools
Research works
9.6k
fractional, since 1954
In the world top 10%
1,000
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.4%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+100%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
18% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Sustainability in Higher Education

Which countries lead Sustainability in Higher Education research?

By volume, the United States and Indonesia publish the most (465 and 333 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 465 works
  2. 2 Indonesia 333 works
  3. 3 India 307 works
  4. 4 Spain 243 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 242 works
  6. 6 Germany 234 works
  7. 7 China 232 works
  8. 8 Brazil 210 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 182 works
  10. 10 Malaysia 147 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 17.9%Indonesia: 12.8%India: 11.8%Spain: 9.4%6 others listed: 48.0%18%largest
United States465 · 17.9%Indonesia333 · 12.8%India307 · 11.8%Spain243 · 9.4%6 others listed1,246 · 48.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Sustainability in Higher Education research?

By volume in 2022-now, Indonesia University of Education publishes the most Sustainability in Higher Education research, followed by University of South Africa and Universiti Teknologi MARA.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Indonesia University of EducationIndonesia 26 works
  2. 2 University of South AfricaSouth Africa 17 works
  3. 3 Universiti Teknologi MARAMalaysia 17 works
  4. 4 Universitas Negeri SurabayaIndonesia 15 works
  5. 5 Universiti Sains MalaysiaMalaysia 14 works
  6. 6 University of the Basque CountrySpain 14 works
  7. 7 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 13 works
  8. 8 Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaSpain 13 works
  9. 9 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 12 works
  10. 10 Tecnológico de MonterreyMexico 12 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sustainability in Higher Education?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sustainability in Higher Education include Seeram Ramakrishna, Carla Sofia e Sá Farinha and Robert Costanza.

  1. 1 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations
  2. 2 Carla Sofia e Sá Farinha United States 119k citations
  3. 3 Robert Costanza Australia 107k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Sustainability in Higher Education?

The most cited paper in Sustainability in Higher Education is "Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development" (Arnim Wiek, Lauren Withycombe, Charles L. Redman, 2011), with 2,949 citations. Next come "Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges" (2,931) and "Changing Learner Behavior Through Environmental Education" (2,123).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development Arnim Wiek, Lauren Withycombe, Charles L. Redman · Sustainability Science 18 May 2011 2,949
2 Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges Daniel J. Lang, Arnim Wiek, Matthias Bergmann et al. · Sustainability Science Open access Feb 2012 2,931
3 Changing Learner Behavior Through Environmental Education Harold R. Hungerford, Trudi L. Volk · The Journal of Environmental Education Mar 1990 2,123
4 Sustainable development: Meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action: Literature review Justice Mensah · Cogent Social Sciences Open access 2019 1,857
5 Leverage points for sustainability transformation David J. Abson, Joern Fischer, Julia Leventon et al. · AMBIO Open access 25 Jun 2016 1,565
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sustainability in Higher Education research done?

The largest centres of Sustainability in Higher Education research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Bandung (Indonesia) and Beijing (China).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 57 works
  2. 2 Kuala LumpurMalaysia 41 works
  3. 3 BandungIndonesia 39 works
  4. 4 BeijingChina 39 works
  5. 5 BangkokThailand 38 works
  6. 6 IstanbulTürkiye 33 works
  7. 7 JakartaIndonesia 33 works
  8. 8 São PauloBrazil 32 works
  9. 9 MadridSpain 31 works
  10. 10 SurabayaIndonesia 30 works
See Sustainability in Higher Education on the map

Where is the best place to study Sustainability in Higher Education?

Among universities, judged by research, Monash University, Beijing Normal University and University of South Africa score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 15.71%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Monash UniversityBeijing Normal Unive…University of South …Indonesia University…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Monash UniversityAustralia 62.340.1%2.1×9 +109.8%
2Beijing Normal UniversityChina 53.227.9%3.5×12 -
3University of South AfricaSouth Africa 50.39.2%9.0×17 +39.5%
4Indonesia University of EducationIndonesia 49.13.1%5.8×26 +150.7%
5Tecnológico de MonterreyMexico 44.55.9%10.3×12 +140.9%
6Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaSpain 44.19.1%8.0×13 +57.7%
7Mahidol UniversityThailand 44.121.1%4.0×9 +375.4%
8University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 44.011.3%4.2×12 +336.2%
9Aalborg UniversityDenmark 43.717.4%3.9×10 +19.6%
10University of HelsinkiFinland 43.612.0%3.7×11 +77.8%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Sustainability in Higher Education, country by country

Is Sustainability in Higher Education research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 100% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Sustainability in Higher Education.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Sustainability in Higher Education as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Sustainability in Higher Education0.028% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sustainability in Higher Education over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Sustainability in Higher Education10.2% in 202520102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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