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Common features of sustainable higher education sector according to an international sustainability ranking data

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Abstract

This case study utilized data from an international university ranking (GreenMetric World University Rankings). The data show that in 2015–17, campus greening activities were dominated by sustainable development (SD) oriented education and research, development and innovation (RDI) activity; however, in 2018–19, the dominance outcomes were found to be the opposite. The SD maturity level of higher education institutes (HEI) is negatively correlated with the annual development rate of actions due to saturation in the ranking status. The modeling results indicate that through protective tradition and norm-oriented cultural features, the HEI sector is able to run dynamically and align intellectual academic reforms according to international SD guidance and steering.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to GreenMetric University Ranking organization in Universitas Indonesia because of a permission to use data from their web site. Jari Järvinen helped on data gathering.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Häme University of Applied Sciences, PO Box 230, 13101, Hämeenlinna, Finland

    Mervi Friman & Janne Salminen

  2. National Defence University, Suomenlinna, 00190, Helsinki, Finland

    Arto Mutanen

  3. Feevale University, ERS 239, 2755-Vila Nova, Novo Hamburgo, RS, 93525-075, Brazil

    Dusan Schreiber

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  1. Mervi Friman
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  2. Arto Mutanen
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  3. Dusan Schreiber
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  4. Janne Salminen
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Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by MF and JS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MF and JS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mervi Friman.

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Friman, M., Mutanen, A., Schreiber, D. et al. Common features of sustainable higher education sector according to an international sustainability ranking data. Sustain Sci 17, 2143–2153 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01134-x

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