Sustainability in engineering education: an editorial and interpretive synthesis

Other text in scientific journal, 2026

This editorial provides an introduction to and interpretive synthesis of the seventeen contributions to the European Journal of Engineering Education special issue on Sustainability in Engineering Education, and the current state, emerging trends, and future directions of the field. The special issue contributions indicate that sustainability in engineering education is moving beyond early add-on approaches towards broader curricular integration, yet transformative ambitions remain only partially realised and unevenly enacted across institutional, disciplinary, and national contexts. These insights are complemented by two additional perspectives: a reflective insider account of current trends at one European university and a critical challenge to dominant European viewpoints through South African scholarship on transformation and decolonisation. Beyond further curricular integration, the next phase of sustainability in engineering education is argued to depend on enhanced institutional reflexivity, epistemic plurality, and critical engagement with the purposes, assumptions, and societal responsibilities of engineering education and engineers.