Strategic Planning for Sustainability in Canadian Higher Education

Abstract

This paper reviews representations of sustainability in the strategic plans of Canadian higher education institutions (HEIs). A content analysis of the strategic plans of 50 HEIs was undertaken to determine the extent to which sustainability is included as a significant policy priority in the plans, including across the five domains of governance, education, campus operations, research, and community outreach. We found 41 strategic plans with some discussion of sustainability, and identified three characteristic types of response: (i) accommodative responses that include sustainability as one of many policy priorities and address only one or two sustainability domains; (ii) reformative responses that involve some alignment of policy priorities with sustainability values in at least a few domains; and (iii) progressive responses that make connections across four or five domains and offer a more detailed discussion of sustainability and sustainability-specific policies. Accommodative responses were dominant. More progressive responses were typically from institutions participating in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The paper concludes with consideration of the political and economic contexts contributing to this relative prevalence of accommodative responses to sustainability.

Sustainability in Teaching: An Evaluation of University Teachers and Students

“…In this respect, they had a strong commitment to AASHE considering the autonomy in academia. The results of this study coincide with the proposal of Bieler and McKenzie [38], that to transform sustainability into higher education, the inclusion of variables related to policy, governance, education, campus operations, research and community outreach must include all stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), mentioned by Calder and Clugston [7].…”

“…Bieler and McKenzie [38] completed a study in Canadian HEIs. Their result focused on accommodative responses that addressed sustainability in one or two domains connected with the institution's management strategies and core values.…”

A Matter of Responsible Management from Higher Education Institutions

“…Determining community outreach is generally perceived as a difficult task [50,51]. The analysis of impacts on social behavior requires a more detailed proceeding which enables an in-depth analysis.…”

“…In terms of organizational responsibility, major targets include issuing holistic approaches fostering quality management or society outreach to satisfy stakeholder needs and tackle social problems [19,50]. As there is a lack of mission statements embracing responsibility issues [53,54], the use of blanket statements [51] fostering the public image of the organization [53] suggests the need for more responsible management. The evolution of mission statements simultaneously calls for an investigation of managerial processes [55] to achieve better governance and leadership [48].…”

Long-Term Educational Sustainability: Educational Innovation in Social Vulnerability Contexts

“…Studies have shown that parents' educational attainment is closely related to children's academic success and educational level [19,20]. Parents with higher educational attainment feel more capable of helping their children, are more aware of academic performance, and are more prone to monitoring their children's academic progress [21].…”