The Cognitive Role of Lecturers in Sustainable Higher Education Development: A PLS-SEM Approach

This study explores the factors shaping faculty awareness of sustainable development in higher education and analyzes the impact of faculty awareness on institutional sustainability. Data were collected from 339 lecturers in Vietnamese universities and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that Faculty training and competence (as discussed later), green campus initiatives, and national and international collaboration significantly enhance faculty awareness, while institutional commitment has a small but insignificant positive effect, teaching methods are not significant. Faculty awareness itself positively contributes to sustainable development in higher education, confirming its mediating role between institutional factors and sustainability outcomes.The study enriches the literature by highlighting the cognitive role of faculty in advancing sustainability. Practical implications include investing in faculty development, expanding collaboration networks, promoting green campus strategies, and translating institutional commitments into concrete actions. Limitations relate to convenience sampling and cross-sectional data, suggesting directions for broader, longitudinal, and mixed-method research.