SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: DEVELOPMENT OF A PRELIMINARY SET OF INDICATORS

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have increasingly pursued sustainability in alignment with global declarations such as the 1977 Tbilisi Declaration, the 1990 Talloires Declaration, and the 2005 UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Despite these initiatives, many campuses remain far from being sustainable, as challenges of global warming and climate change persist. Various studies have developed sustainability indicators tailored to international and regional contexts to assess institutional performance. This paper seeks to establish a preliminary set of sustainability performance indicators (PIs) specific to Nigerian HEIs. Using a systematic desk research approach, existing sustainability assessment tools (SATs) were reviewed, resulting in the selection of 12 SATs encompassing 320 indicators. From these, 43 indicators relevant to the Nigerian context were identified. Also, "sewage disposal" was included as a critical local factor, bringing the total to 44 preliminary PIs. The findings demonstrate that contextual factors, including purpose, developmental stage, institutional background, and focus, significantly shape PIs. Nigerian HEIs are in the preliminary stages of sustainability application, hence the contextualised indicators proposed in this study aim to strengthen localised sustainability actions. Understanding the current phase of sustainability development and strategically applying these indicators can enhance the capacity of Nigeria's HEIs, particularly in the context of early adopters such as those in Nigeria.