In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the 2030 Agenda, a global initiative addressing critical challenges such as poverty, inequality, and climate change. In this context, education emerges as a fundamental pillar, highlighting SDG 4, Quality education.

At the university level, incorporating the SDGs into curricula represents an opportunity and a responsibility to train citizens with critical thinking and capacity for action in the face of global challenges. As Loorbach and Wittmayer (2023) state, universities have the potential to generate a transformative impact through teaching, research and community engagement, thus fostering a culture of sustainability in society (Groulx et al., 2021). However, the process of integrating sustainability in higher education, both in Europe and in other regions, is facing multiple challenges (Ibrahim et al., 2021). These include a lack of innovative strategies to facilitate its effective adoption, poor faculty training, poor adaptation of institutional models to global realities and issues, and a lack of interdisciplinary approaches to subjects. In addition, universities are not implementing evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to measure the impact of these strategies on students' education and their ability to apply the knowledge acquired in professional environments.

In order to address these issues, this study aimed to analyse, in a comparative manner, the integration of the SDGs in the training of future professionals in six universities in different countries. The following questions were posed to guide the research: What kind of training are university students receiving about the SDGs, and how is this training process being carried out? The study highlights similarities and differences in how sustainability is addressed in universities in six countries (Spain, Italy, Ecuador, Argentina, El Salvador and Morocco), which could suggest improvements in training future professionals at a global level.

Sustainability in university student education

Higher education institutions have adopted various strategies to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their academic programmes. Among the models identified in the literature, the cross-cutting approach stands out, in which the SDGs are incorporated into all disciplines, promoting a holistic view of sustainable development (Argento et al., 2020; Barth et al., 2016). Their integration into specific subjects has also been explored (Fuertes-Camacho et al., 2019; Sánchez-Carracedo et al., 2021), as well as in active methodologies, such as project-based learning, which allows students to address the SDGs through practical experiences and real-world problem solving (Gatti et al., 2019). However, recent research reveals that implementing these strategies in most universities has been sporadic and unsystematic, leading to gaps and limitations in student learning.

One of the main challenges for integrating the SDGs into university education is the lack of teacher training. Moreover, sustainability is often perceived as an additional burden on the curriculum, and many academics lack the intrinsic motivation to implement it (Dmochowski et al., 2016). This is compounded by institutional resistance and a shortage of structural support, which hinders the effective and widespread integration of sustainability in higher education (Lambrechts et al., 2017; Žalėnienė & Pereira, 2021). Several strategies have been proposed to overcome these barriers that can strengthen the teaching of the SDGs at the university level. One of them is the incorporation of compulsory subjects on sustainability, accessible to students from all disciplines, which would ensure that future professionals acquire essential knowledge on sustainable development (Wals & Corcoran, 2012). Another key strategy is promoting interdisciplinary learning through collaborative projects and service-learning activities (Tejedor et al., 2019). Finally, assessing sustainability competencies within university certification criteria is an essential strategy to consolidate sustainability as a fundamental component in higher education (Baena-Morales et al., 2023).

In order to achieve the proposed objective, the quantitative method was adopted. The sample was selected using the purposive sampling technique and consisted of 3121 students from universities in six countries: Spain, Italy, Ecuador, Argentina, El Salvador and Morocco. Regarding socio-demographic variables, 61.8% were women and 66.6% were between 18 and 25 years old. A questionnaire designed ad hoc based on expert literature was used for the data collection process. For the content validity study, the instrument was subjected to expert judgement. Three professionals specialised in Education for Sustainable Development and three in Educational Research participated. Based on their assessment, the first version was redesigned and piloted with 10 subjects with similar characteristics to the potential participants in each country. After some grammatical corrections, the final instrument was configured and organised into four dimensions: (1) Knowledge of university students about the Sustainable Development Goals, consisting of one open-ended question and 11 items, with a Likert scale, where 1 represents the lowest value and 5 the highest (2) Skills for sustainable development, consisting of 20 items, with a Likert scale, where 1 represents the lowest value and 5 the highest (3) Type of SDG studies undertaken, consisting of 15 multiple-choice items; i.e. students could choose more than one option, and (4) Usefulness of the SDGs, consisting of 19 multiple-choice items and two open-ended questions. This study analyses the third dimension of the instrument, which is quantitative. The final version of the questionnaire was designed digitally using Google Forms and administered telematically, guaranteeing the confidentiality and anonymity of the information collected at all times, in compliance with the principles established in the Declaration of Helsinki. The data were analyzed according to their nature. In the specific case of the third dimension of the study, a descriptive analysis was carried out using SPSS v. 25 statistical software.

The findings show significant variations between countries and modalities of SDG integration in higher education, reflecting different educational approaches and levels of institutional commitment. Ecuador has tremendously succeeded in integrating the SDGs into the university curriculum. At the same time, Italy faces greater difficulties due to its lower percentage of integration. In Spain, Argentina and El Salvador, although the levels of incorporation are relatively high, a considerable number of students still do not receive training on these issues. The most common modality of integration of the SDGs in university education is their inclusion as a specific topic within a subject. Ecuador leads this modality, with 16.8% of its students reporting this type of integration, while El Salvador reaches the highest percentage (25.8%). Another strategy used is the incorporation of the SDGs in projects or final projects of the subjects, where Ecuador (16.4%) and Argentina (11.7%) present outstanding percentages. The application of the SDGs in real-world activities has had a low presence in Argentina (19.0%), Spain (15.1%) and Italy (7.1%). This shows that the SDGs are still addressed with a theoretical approach. The cross-cutting integration of the SDGs in all subject topics, activities and assessments is the least frequent modality, with percentages ranging from 1.7% in Italy to 5.1% in Ecuador. It is concluded that a holistic approach is needed in university education, which promotes the integration of sustainability in students' professional and personal lives. To this end, it is essential to transform the traditional educational model, promote active methodologies, and strengthen institutional commitment. Strategies that favour the cross-cutting inclusion of the SDGs in curricula and their application in practical and real contexts must be developed. Experiences in various universities show the need to implement more structured approaches to ensure the effective teaching of the SDGs in all disciplines.

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