Page 158 - SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES & COVID-19

25 Sustainability in Higher

Education

Rina Karlina, Mayla Khoiriyah

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

PURPOSE

Higher education has important role in sustainability through local, regional, and national cross collaborations (Trencher
et al., 2014). According to Sustainable Developmet Goals, higher education is required to provide wider access to
education and to offer higher opportunity to communities for learning in sustainable education systems. Thus, higher
education is needed to redefine their contracts with society, which were previously defined as social institution not as
an industrial institution (Lattu & Cai, 2020).

Sustainability in private sector has been widely discussed while in higher education is still limited (Swarnapali,
2017). In fact, higher education has the same responsibility as private sector in impementing sustainable practices.
The application of sustainability practices is closely related to stakeholder theory, where all relevant stakeholders
contribute to value creation for business process in driving sustainability practices (Freudenreich et al., 2019). Likewise,
higher education need to collaborate with all relevant stakeholders in maximizing their services and to contribute to
sustainable education.

Tensions in sustainability are one of the important topic discussed in corporate sustainability. Tensions occur when
a corporate’s objectives are in conflict regarding economic, social, and environment dimensions. This is important
because in implementing sustainability practices, higher education should change their internal processes, which
associated with learning activities (Aleixo, Azeiteiro, and Leal, 2017) or social activites so the tensions in implementing
this practices must be known (Lattu and Cai, 2020; Hahn et al., 2012).

Higher contribution to community is also demanded in Indonesia’s higher education. Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi,
which are mandatory regulation, encourages higher education conducting social community activites by involving
students. (Gusti, 2019). However, during COVID-19 outbreak, higher education face greater pressure in doing these
activities due to diffculty to communicate, unable to access internet and limitation of travel services. These issues give
special challenges to higher education whose students are widely spread across Indonesia (Pujilestari, 2020). Social
community activites are limited so that sustainability in higher education is questionable.

This study discusses the urgency of implementing sustainability in higher education in Indonesia. The purpose of this
study is to answer whether higher education can implement sustainable education during COVID-19 outbreak. This
research begins with a study of perceptions of sustainability concept in higher education according to Aleixo, Azeiteiro,
and Leal (2017). Then, analyzing tensions faced by higher education in implementing sustanability and strategies to
mitigate these tensions according to integrative framework developed by Hahn et al. (2012).

Accounting education are significantly affected by COVID-19 outbreak which can lead to dangerous education systems
(Aguguom, Ademola, Otitolaiye, 2020). So we choose accounting education as the sample of this study. In Indonesia,
the study of accounting in higher education can be found in universities which are Department of Accounting,
Department of Accouting Education, Department of Applied Accounting. We choose three universities as our sample
that represents each of these categories which are Riau University, Jakarta State University, and State Financial
Polytechnic STAN. Studies related in higher education is still limited, it is expected that this research can contribute to
sustainability in higher education literature.

STUDY DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach and single case study with several units of analysis. Research
instruments used are semi-structured interviews and documentation to be able to explore perceptions related to the
topic of sustainability in higher education.

International Conference on Sustainability 157
(5 Sustainability Practitioner Conference)
Th