Abstract:

Over the last decade, the role of sustainable development of universities has become recognized as an important issue. The concept of sustainable university is becoming a frequent topic of research in the domain of organization of higher education institutions. Crucial issues related to sustainable development strongly influence the mission and vision of the university, its system of research and education, as well as its relation to communities. Universities are expected to be involved with social, technological and environmental issues.

After a detailed elucidation of the term “sustainable university” and overview of its key characteristics, research topics of this paper include: tools for measuring sustainable development of higher education institutions, factors of sustainability and a standardized set of metrics for monitoring effects of individual factors on sustainability. The research goal is to develop a theoretical model for assessing sustainable development of higher education institutions, which should enable standardized measurement of sustainability and university ranking according to the achieved level of sustainability.

By adopting a unified sustainability assessment model, institutions could benefit from unambiguous indicators that allow comparison with other institutions and support identification of best practices. At the same time, results obtained through analyses based on the proposed assessment model should serve as a firm basis for creating new or altering existing policies at various levels – institutional, regional, or the whole higher education system.

Keywords:

Sustainable university, assessment tools, assessment model, measures.