فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Over the past two decades, sustainability has gained significant attention in higher education studies. This paper reviews the current literature that examines the sustainability areas in higher education. To meet the aim of the paper, a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journals was conducted in four main steps including tracing, filtering, evaluating, and synthesizing the documents.  Articles were retrieved from databases Google Scholar, Science Direct, Emerald Insight, and Springer Link. Subsequently, a total of 182 articles published between 1998 and 2024 were analyzed. The results suggested that the main contributions to the field are to be found in the areas of assessment and reporting, education, barriers and drivers, governance, conceptualization, campus, modeling, and research, respectively. Finally, an attempt has been made to outline the logical connection of these concepts in the form of a conceptual model. The main contribution of this research is providing a general and guiding framework focused on the areas of sustainability in higher education institutions. This study also contributes to enhancing the knowledge of the novel concepts, categories, and relations, which can guide future research. The results have considerable implications for beneficiaries, specifically university planners, policymakers, decision-makers, and professionals to understand the important areas that can assist in facilitating and accelerating sustainability efforts in higher education.