Toward Sustainable Higher Education Governance: Student Engagement, Faculty Incentives, and Organizational Coordination in Chinese Undergraduate Universities

Sustainable higher education governance requires durable institutional mechanisms that support student engagement, faculty participation in education, and organizational coordination. Against the backdrop of China’s “Three-All Education” framework, academic culture has become a broader governance issue involving student development, faculty engagement, and organizational operation. This study aims to examine the current conditions and associated factors of academic culture governance in resource-constrained undergraduate universities. Based on survey data from three undergraduate institutions in Gansu Province, China, including 6120 valid student questionnaires and 735 valid faculty questionnaires, this study combines group difference tests with multiple regression analysis. The findings show that the sampled institutions face three main challenges: insufficient continuity in students’ academic goal commitment, limited faculty educational engagement under research-oriented incentives, and weak organizational coordination. Regression results further indicate that clarity of learning goals is significantly and positively associated with students’ learning status; perceived research orientation is significantly and negatively associated with faculty engagement in education; and information sharing and clarity of responsibility are significantly and positively associated with organizational coordination. These findings suggest that sustainable academic culture governance depends on the alignment of student goal support, faculty incentive structures, and collaborative organizational operation.