Sustainability and higher education: exploring ESG drivers of university performance through a multi-stakeholder lens

During the last two decades, sustainability and environmental, social and governance issues have gained considerable attention. In the current scenario, universities play a pivotal role in transitioning to a sustainable society, providing students with knowledge about sustainability and contributing to achieving the sustainable development goals of the 2030 UN Agenda. In light of the previous considerations, this research aimed to understand if and how the ESG factors can affect the performance of universities. Our analysis considered only the Italian universities for which there are Times Higher Education Index for 2022–2023 as a tool for assessing the sustainability score of universities. We carried out a multi-stakeholder analysis to understand if there is a correlation between the percentage variation of this index during the selected period and economic variables related to the students and professors. The findings showed a moderate positive correlation only with the percentage variation in the number of enrolled students.