Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Conceptualization and Measurement

Abstract

The present study developed an assessment tool for measuring sustainability in higher education
and used a mixed method approach generating items through thematic analysis followed by a
quantitative method that build a scale using exploratory factor analysis, separately for three
populations i.e. faculty, students and administration at institutions of higher learning. The
participants were selected through purposive sampling technique and sampled 140 faculty
members, 119 students and 182 administrators at two universities in Lahore. Age range of all
participants was between 22 to 58 years. The final scale, called Higher Education Sustainability
Assessment Tool (HESAT) reduced item pool to 8 factors dubbed as Teaching Quality (6 items; 36%
variance), Development Opportunities (4 items;22% variance), Research Activities (3 items; 22%
variance) in faculty form; Work Opportunities (3 items; 28% variance), Engagement (4 items; 27%
variance), Skills Development (2 items; 23% variance) in student form; Strategic Communication (5
items; 42% variance) and Funding (3 items; 29% variance) in administrator form.