Empowering and implementing sustainability integration into higher education curriculum in emerging countries: ‘walk the talk’ or ‘talk the talk’?

Purpose The study aims to identify current faculty practices, examine how different levels of higher education (HE) management empower and implement sustainability integration and explore the challenges of integrating sustainability into HE curriculum in emerging countries. Design/methodology/approach This study sampled Vietnamese universities and international HE institutions (HEIs) operating in Vietnam to represent the emerging context. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 faculty leaders from 8 universities, with major themes identified through double coding and thematic analysis. Findings The study identified three major themes of practice by management and faculty to integrate sustainability into the curriculum: structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and practical implementation, and such practices primarily came from the meso and micro levels of management. Prominent challenges for lecturers to strategize and deliver better curricula on sustainability knowledge resulted from the macro-level management, particularly in the lack of supportive frameworks, empowerment and resources. Practical implications HE management can empower institutions’ sustainability education strategies and practices through building networking and stakeholder engagement, enriching case studies and work-integrated learning projects, facilitating transformation with champions, providing direction through orientation and training, monitoring transformation and rewarding excellence and facilitating research collaborations. Originality/value Research on the extent to which HEIs have initiated efforts to incorporate sustainability into their curricula and programs remains limited. Moreover, recent literature on sustainability in HE primarily focuses on practices in developed countries. This study conceptualizes a management framework for HE and identifies key challenges, offering insights grounded in the under-researched context of emerging countries.