Designing a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard in higher education: a case study of a self-financed institution amid global integration

Purpose This study develops a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) for a self-financed higher education institution in Vietnam operating in a globally integrated context. The proposed framework integrates the traditional Balanced Scorecard with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards to capture both strategic and sustainability performance. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a modified Delphi method to build expert consensus among 38 educational leaders representing diverse administrative levels within the institution. Two sequential Delphi rounds were conducted, using mean score analysis and the content validity ratio to assess the relevance and validity of the proposed performance indicators. Findings The resulting SBSC comprises 57 validated performance indicators distributed across six performance dimensions: finance, customer, internal process, learning and growth, environmental and social performance, and governance performance. The final framework follows a strategy-driven cause–effect logic consistent with the SBSC approach. Practical implications The proposed SBSC provides self-financed higher education institutions in Vietnam with a comprehensive performance management system that balances traditional operational and financial metrics with sustainability considerations for strategic management and sustainability reporting. Originality/value This research significantly contributes to the SBSC literature in higher education by developing and empirically validating a fully operational, GRI-informed SBSC tailored to self-financed HEIs. By aligning performance measurement with strategic management and sustainability reporting through a coherent cause–effect logic, the framework advances sustainability-oriented performance management in higher education, addressing a gap that remains underexplored in the existing literature.