Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in advancing sustainable development within the knowledge society by training future leaders, experts, and educators, and conducting research on achieving a more sustainable world (e.g., Wals et al., 2016). The whole-institution approach (WIA) is recognized as vital for successful governance in sustainable development at HEIs (e.g., Holst, 2023). Developing a comprehensive concept for implementing sustainable development that integrates research, teaching, transfer, and operations is a complex yet rewarding challenge, capable of transforming entire institutions (Niedlich et al., 2020). In this context, the involvement, dialogue, and collaboration among stakeholders from various areas and sectors of the HEI are crucial (e.g., Leal Filho et al., 2019). Innovative approaches are required to promote WIA, and we see service learning (SL) as a promising yet underutilized format in this regard.

Service learning engages students in active, relevant, and collaborative learning processes, emphasizing both service and the associated learning (Bringle & Hatcher, 2000). In sustainability-oriented SL projects, students take responsibility for developing concepts or implementing projects for practice partners, instigating organizational changes toward sustainability and gaining knowledge and action skills through experiential learning processes (e.g., Schank et al., 2020).

While SL is increasingly recognized as a method of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (e.g., Tejedor et al., 2019), it is often underexplored in the sustainable design of universities themselves (e.g., Johannisson & Hiete, 2021). Existing studies primarily focus on student learning outcomes, overlooking the concrete benefits and effects of SL for other stakeholders, such as community partners or society at large (Stöhr & Herzig, 2021). Consequently, the extent to which SL can be instrumental in realizing WIA at universities and fostering sustainable local/regional transformation remains a research gap.

In the "Service Learning and Sustainable Transformation at Universities" (Senatra) project, the University of Vechta, the University of Bremen, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, and the student organisation netzwerk n collaborate to address the overarching research question: "To what extent can the incorporation of service learning in university teaching contribute to an overall institutional sustainable transformation of universities?"

The project aims to: analyse the impact of SL on students' competence development in the ESD context, describe the success conditions of SL in the context of ESD, investigate the integration processes between science and practice, evaluate the contribution of SL projects to the sustainable transformation of higher education institutions, and research the role of SL projects in the transfer of sustainability practices and their contribution to regional sustainable transformation.

To address this research gap, we are conducting a multiple transdisciplinary case study (Kyburz-Graber, 2016) that explores and scientifically evaluates various SL formats at HEIs. In alignment with the WIA, SL projects are implemented on university campuses as part of courses, supporting their sustainable transformation across all university activities. This approach turns the HEIs themselves into real-world laboratories for sustainable development, while SL projects with external partners aim to facilitate knowledge transfer to the regions. The project unfolds in four phases: Phase 1 (development), Phase 2 (application), Phase 3 (evaluation/finalization), and Phase 4 (consolidation/transfer). Following the development phase, SL formats are trialled and evaluated sequentially at each university before undergoing additional testing at other partner universities. This sequential approach provides insights into their effectiveness, transferability, and success conditions. Data collection during SL seminars involves pre- and post-design surveys of students, post-project group discussions, expert interviews with practice partners, students, and teachers, as well as practical teaching research through teaching diaries and document analyses. The pre- and post-survey is particularly pivotal, utilizing a quantitative questionnaire study developed at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg to analyze the effectiveness of SL on students' reported competence development in ESD. Situational variables are incorporated to analyse context-specific differences in the courses and their impact on student outcomes. An a priori model, grounded in existing research on ESD and SL, informs the survey instrument, which includes adapted existing scales and newly developed scales based on theoretical findings. Pre-testing and refinement of the survey instrument precede its application in the quantitative pre-post test during the SL seminars at participating universities in the winter semester of 2023/2024. Data analysis serves to validate the survey instrument and the model, employing dimension-reducing methods to manage the extensive questionnaire. Additionally, inferential statistical methods applied to the pre-post survey data describe the impact of SL on skills development in terms of ESD within the sample (Lindau et al., 2024). While prior research on ESD in higher education often relies on descriptive case studies from individual universities, the generalizability of which may be questioned (Barth & Rieckmann, 2016), our project emphasizes the importance of multiple case studies in the field (Cebrián, 2021). The mixed methods design, coupled with a cross-case examination of results, aims for a more profound understanding and generalizable findings on the pertinent research questions.

To date, five project seminars involving a total of 90 students have been conducted at three universities. Among these seminars, three were organised in collaboration with regional partners, including associations, municipal institutions, or schools, while the remaining two involved campus partners such as the university sustainability office or student initiatives. Data collection using the pre-post questionnaire occurred for the first time in three service learning (SL) seminars during the current winter semester of 2023/24 (pre-survey: October 2023, post-survey: January and February 2024). The pre-survey engaged 60 students, revealing that students already perceived their sustainability knowledge as relatively well-developed before the commencement of the seminar. Positive attitudes towards sustainability and a commitment to it were also evident, although values for students' self-efficacy were notably lower. As the post-survey was recently completed, ongoing evaluation is underway. The results, to be presented at the conference, will provide insights into the validity of the survey instrument. The aim is to make a German and English version of the validated instrument available to the scientific community as soon as possible. The survey findings will address the effects of SL on students, and interviews with partners will offer information on the impact of SL projects on partners and in the region. The diverse empirical data collected in this multiple case study will significantly contribute to the European and global discourse on the significance of SL within the framework of ESD and the WIA. It is poised to stimulate additional academic interest in SL within the context of ESD in higher education on an international scale.

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