Student-led action for sustainability in higher education: a literature review

Abstract

Purpose Over the past few decades, universities have been recognized as ideal leaders for the development of policies and innovative solutions required to support the transition to sustainable societies. As a major stakeholder group, students play a significant role in moving this agenda forward; however, their actions remain understudied in the sustainability in higher education (SHE) literature. Design/methodology/approach In response, this systematic literature review was conducted to determine what research has been done on student-led action for SHE. Findings Findings demonstrate that while students are an understudied stakeholder group, there is a growing focus in the SHE literature on their contributions. The results suggest that students are working to increase the uptake of SHE through multi-stakeholder collaborations, collective action and interdisciplinarity. This review identifies a lack of engagement with intersectionality (interrelated environmental and social issues) and highlights the need to redirect future SHE research, calling for increased comparative research studies and research syntheses to provide greater depth to our understanding of student-led initiatives. Research limitations/implications This literature review is limited by the smaller sample size of articles; however, conclusions can nonetheless be drawn from these results to guide future scholarship. Implications exist for theoretical contributions to social movement theories and theories of organizational change for SHE. Originality/value This research provides insight into student-led action for SHE and how their efforts might better be supported to encourage the increased integration of SHE.