Towards Sustainability in Higher-Education Institutions: Analysis of Contributing Factors and Appropriate Strategies

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The main objective of the study was to explore how UNDIP has carried out sustainable development to date and to identify factors that may indicate the existence of sustainability activity in higher education institutions (HEIs). It is a well written and coherent manuscript. The manuscript describes and contextualizes the previous and current theoretical background on the subject, however, to emphasize the idea or importance of social issues, I recommend incorporating other references such as:
Elena M. Díaz Pareja, Africa M. Cámara Estrella, Inés M. Muñoz Galiano & Juana M. Ortega-Tudela (2018) Group work: Acquisition of transversal competences of future teachers, Educational Studies, 44: 1, 45-56, DOI: 10.1080 / 03055698.2017.1331841
Juana-María Ortega-Tudela, Africa-María Cámara-Estrella & Elena-María Diaz-Pareja (2015) Service learning as a tool to enhance the media competence of future teachers Culture and education, 27: 2, 440-455, DOI: 10.1080 /11356405.2015.1035547

It is important to know how the involvement of university students in different learning methodologies such as collaborative learning and service-learning can help students to improve their social commitment and promote pro-environmental behavior in the university community. 

Moreover, all the different elements as research design, questions, hypotheses  and methods are clearly and adequate.

The conclusions are relevant and well supported.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Congratulation for de article.  Some citations must be adjusted to the regulations(ACS layout), since the year appears within the text.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The article seems very interesting and in general well organized and presented. However, there are certain shortcomings that need to be taken int o consideration. First, it is important to consider the missing pillar of culture in defining sustainable development. Second, there is need to explore more on the methodology of meta-analysis, perhaps presenting a typology of meta-analyses. Traditionally, meta-analysis focuses on the calculation of effect sizes and confidence intervals. It is also important to explain the contribution of the meta-analysis carried out and how it complements the SWOT Analysis or vise versa. Third, there is some confusion with the presentation of the SWOT Analysis results and the use of the four different strategies (ST, WT, WO, and SO). Does ST mean only Strengths? What does WT mean? Does it mean both Weaknesses and Threats? If so, how can you put together two different dimensions of SWOT Analysis? The same questions refer also to WO and SO. Fourth, it is necessary to differentiate the results from the discussion and enrich the literature review by more studies in the field of meta-analysis and sustainability in higher education. Some suggestions are the following-

Zhao, G., Geng, Y., Sun, H. et al. Mapping the knowledge of green consumption: a meta-analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 44937–44950 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11029-y

Malcolm Tight (2019) Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of higher education research, European Journal of Higher Education, 9:2, 133-152, DOI: 10.1080/21568235.2018.1541752

Makrakis, V. & Kostoulas-Makrakis, N. (2013). A methodology for reorienting university curricula to address sustainability: The RUCAS-Tempus project initiative. In S. Caeiro et al. (Eds.), Sustainability assessment tools in higher education institutions (pp. 23-44). Springer International Publishing Switzerland. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-02375-5_18,

Author Response

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