Bridging sustainability competencies and climate action in higher education: An integrative conceptual review and competence-to-action instructional framework

Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to respond to the climate crisis through instruction that helps students analyze sustainability problems, design feasible interventions, and act with accountability. However, many sustainability courses remain knowledge-heavy and leave the pathway from learning to action implicit, which can constrain readiness to act and weaken the assessment of applied competence. This paper develops a competence-to-action instructional framework for environmental sustainability education in higher education. The framework is grounded in an integrative conceptual review and thematic synthesis of higher education literature and policy sources across Education for Sustainable Development, sustainability competency scholarship, experiential and transformative learning, whole-institution approaches, campus living labs, behavior-oriented learning theory, and Universal Design for Learning. The review is international in scope but does not claim regional representativeness. It synthesizes conceptually relevant sources that offer implications for pedagogy, assessment, or institutional implementation. The synthesis identifies recurring instructional mechanisms, institutional enablers, and assessment implications, which are translated into six propositions, six design commitments, a competency-to-activity-to-evidence map, and a performance-based assessment rubric aligned with systems-thinking, anticipatory, normative, strategic, and interpersonal competencies. The findings suggest that sustainability instruction is more likely to support action readiness when it uses authentic, place-based problems, stakeholder engagement, structured reflection, iterative intervention design, and institutional infrastructures that connect the curriculum to campus operations and community partnerships. The framework also positions Universal Design for Learning as a safeguard for validity and equity, helping students demonstrate competence through multiple evidence pathways while maintaining rigorous expectations. As a conceptual framework rather than an empirical validation study, the paper offers practical guidance for course redesign, living lab implementation, and institutional scaling, while identifying future research priorities related to cross-disciplinary pilots, rubric calibration, and longitudinal validation of competence-to-action indicators.