Engineering education for sustainable development: an analysis of the barriers in Chile

Purpose Integrating sustainability into engineering education is crucial for preparing future engineers with the skills and knowledge needed to address global challenges. This paper aims to examine the challenges related to Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) as perceived by Chilean academic experts. Design/methodology/approach For this, a systematic literature review was conducted, and the identified barriers were used to structure a questionnaire. This questionnaire was used in a survey that was completed by experts from various Chilean universities, all experienced in sustainable development (SD) and engineering education. Using the FUZZY TOPSIS multi-criteria decision technique, the collected data was analyzed, resulting in a ranked list of barriers. Findings From the 20 barriers presented in the literature, the most relevant according to the experts include resistance to change among academics, decreased interest due to disciplinary research demands, lack of knowledge about sustainability concepts and difficulty in updating curricula at the pace of emerging SD concepts. Originality/value This study aims to contribute to the development of effective strategies for integrating SD into engineering education.