Insufficient funds are the biggest barrier to European universities’ sustainability efforts, a new survey of 400 institutions has found, with 59 per cent of respondents citing “general underfunding” as the main hurdle to their activities.

Universities across 43 countries responded to a 2025 European University Association (EUA) survey, with its results compiled in the newly published report Sustainability and greening in European higher education published on 27 November. “When asked what is needed to overcome the barriers they face in implementing sustainability and greening measures, enhanced national and European funding is universities’ biggest ask,” the university group reported.

The EUA carried out a similar survey in 2021; comparing the two sets of results, the university group concluded that, in general, “university engagement for sustainability and greening has increased” over the past four years, “both regarding the number of active institutions and the intensity of their actions”.

“This demonstrates the essential role of universities in the green transition, through research, education and innovation, in close collaboration with policymakers, businesses and wider society, often at a local or regional level,” said Michael Gaebel, the EUA’s director of higher education policy.

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“This is an integral part of the sector’s contribution to Europe’s competitiveness, prosperity and resilience.”

After underfunding, the second most common barrier to “sustainability and greening activities” was “insufficient staff resources”, cited by 55 per cent of institutions, while 48 per cent of respondents said they faced a “lack of specific funding incentives”, 36 per cent said “only few students engage” in their efforts and 33 per cent said the same of staff engagement.

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Progress in the strategic management of institutions appears to have been made since the study was previously conducted, with only 23 per cent listing it as an issue in 2025 compared with about a third in 2021.

The most important source of funding for sustainability efforts was competitive European funding, which 37 per cent of respondents described as “very important” while a further 30 per cent said it was “important”. Targeted national funding for sustainability, internal funding, national competitive funding for sustainability efforts and funding through partnership were also all ranked highly.

A lack of resources also played a central role in institutions’ sustainability reporting. Among the respondents that said they did not report on their sustainability efforts – 29 per cent of total respondents – almost half cited “limited internal capacity or resources” as a primary reason, while 38 per cent pointed to the absence of legally mandated reporting and almost a quarter said there was a lack of demand from relevant stakeholders.

The least frequent hurdles faced, meanwhile, were insufficiently supportive institutional frameworks and regulations, which only 3 per cent of institutions cited as a barrier, a “lack of interested partners”, described by 7 per cent, and insufficiently supportive national higher education frameworks and regulations, cited by 9 per cent.

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emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com