Sustainability Topics Integration in Supply Chain and Logistics Higher Education: Where Is the Middle East?

Abstract

The global logistics industry has grown significantly in the last decade and has become essential to global business activities. In addition, the logistics industry is vital in transportation, urbanization in the Middle East, and transshipment through the Middle East. Due to their increasing importance and size, there is an increasing demand for adequately qualified people capable of managing the logistics systems and supply chains holistically and sustainably to avoid problems caused by unsustainable practices in mobility, transport, and supply chains. However, it is unclear whether the logistic and supply chain education of future leaders, managers, and engineers will follow SDG goals, the rise of new trends, and green technologies or lag behind. This paper pioneered a systematic approach and analyzed Middle Eastern countries regarding their sustainability integration into higher education programs related to supply chain management and logistics studies. It revealed enormous differences among countries and a lack of sustainability topics in most studied countries. Some countries are also significantly more oriented toward partial logistics challenges such as transport efficiency instead of sustainable supply chains, which are becoming critical challenges for the near future and must be accompanied by formal and life-long learning on sustainability-related topics. The circular economy and corporate social responsibility are especially neglected. It was also revealed that sustainability integration in higher education does not correlate with sustainability scores and the ranking of countries within the sustainability index.