In the constantly evolving world of education, it is important for institutions to continually innovate strategies to better engage with students. Sunway University’s novel SUSTAIN strategy nurtures a new generation of holistic leaders equipped to address planetary health crises and deliver equitable, sustainable development. What exactly is SUSTAIN?

By embedding values-driven education, technological innovation, and real-world impact across all programmes, our graduates are prepared to lead global sustainability efforts. This strategy integrates technology-enhanced, peer-to-peer collaboration, and experiential action-based learning to inculcate an entrepreneurial mindset, ethical leadership, and a passion for community engagement. It prepares students to drive transformative change throughout their careers.

An Innovative and Interconnected Approach to Education: 
The SUSTAIN program integrates three compulsory core courses:

Entrepreneurial Mindset and Skills (EMS),
Integrity and Sustainable Development (ISD)
Community Service for Planetary-Health (CSPH).

Collectively, these interdisciplinary courses foster effective problem-solving and leadership skills aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). 

Image

SUSTAIN emphasises experiential learning through innovative platforms such as Sunway University’s award-winning game-based, immersive learning platform, the Paradox of Theron (POT). This game engages thousands of students every semester. This scalable approach ensures students from different fields of expertise gain hands-on experience in solving real-world entrepreneurial challenges linked to the SDGs.

Addressing Challenges through Scalable Innovation: 
Sunway’s strategy tackles the challenge of scaling high-quality education across large cohorts while maintaining personalised learning. The POT platform uses semi-automated assessments to reduce faculty workload while ensuring educational quality. This innovation has enabled Sunway to deliver mass entrepreneurial education efficiently, with 98.5% of students reporting improved complex problem-solving abilities and 88% developing stronger critical thinking skills.

The Integrity and Sustainable Development course leverages a HyFlex model, reinforcing ethical governance and leadership to address sustainability challenges. Through ESG principles, the course promotes transparency and integrity in decision-making using context-relevant case studies. Survey results show that 92.3% of students are confident in applying integrity-fortifying measures after completing the course, demonstrating values-driven leadership traits.

Real-World Engagement with Tangible Impact: 
The Community Service for Planetary-Health course offers students purpose-development opportunities by addressing socio-economic and environmental inequalities in underserved urban-poor communities such as Desa Mentari. Sunway’s long-term partnership with community leaders through collaborative research and community-building programmes enables students to apply entrepreneurial innovation, ethical leadership, and subject-matter expertise in real-world situations.

Image

In January 2024 alone, there were 23 Community Transformation Initiatives involving 210 students. An example of this is when students were given the opportunity to redesign the business model and online presence of local cafes, resulting in an increased footprint and a local economic uplift. These initiatives are SUSTAINed through the University-community long-term partnership, which is built on mutual respect and trust.

SUSTAIN goes Global: 
Global challenges require greater cohesive global leadership to harmonise dialogue and embrace collective responsibilities. Sunway’s Planetary-Health and Sustainability in the Tropics micro-credential course has attracted international students from prestigious institutions like Harvard and Oxford, reflecting the global appeal of the SUSTAIN approach. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with 90% of participants praising the interdisciplinary learning and hands-on field experiences in Malaysia’s tropical ecosystems.

The SUSTAIN strategy positions Sunway University as a leader in global sustainability education. Through experiential, immersive and networked learning, our graduates have become entrepreneurial innovators and ethical leaders poised to become global change-makers. Focused on real-world impact, accessibility and scalability, Sunway University is nurturing the next generation of globalised leaders, committed to solving pressing global challenges while effecting local change– SUSTAINing every step for that big leap of change.

The SUSTAIN Strategy has been nominated as a finalist for the Times Higher Education Awards Asia 2025, in the category of Teaching & Learning Strategy of the Year