A systematic review of institutional barriers to sustainable development in higher education institutions

Educational institutions play a fundamental role in shaping and transforming societies. To pave the path for a sustainable future, these institutions lead through research, academic-industry collaboration, and education and outreach initiatives. Through a systematic review of the recently published literature, this study aims to highlight the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in promoting a sustainable development agenda to meet the UN 2030 vision, following PRISMA guidelines to identify publications from leading databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. The literature examined mainly focused on the global obstacles that HEIs encountered when implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. The findings identified six recurring thematic barriers: governance and leadership limitations, funding constraints, challenges in integrating curriculum, weak stakeholder collaboration, institutional capacity gaps, and gender inclusion issues. This study contributes to the growing literature on higher education and sustainable development by synthesizing recent evidence on the institutional, governance, financial, and collaborative challenges affecting HEIs’ engagement with the SDGs. Unlike earlier reviews that focused primarily on curriculum integration or on isolated institutional initiatives, this study adopts a systems-oriented perspective to explain how interconnected institutional barriers shape HEIs’ ability to operationalize the SDGs across governance, teaching, research, and outreach.