A model for assessing sustainability of universities in iraq

Abstract

Universities started to sign declarations and international agreements to introduce university's sustainability in. Studies for assessing the university's sustainability are common in developed countries; on the other hand, these studies are inadequate and insufficient in developing countries. In Iraq, there is not an inclusive study that demonstrates and measure the Iraqi universities sustainability. Moreover, this country lacks an assessment tool to assess the university's sustainability. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model that allows Iraqi universities to promote and evaluate sustainability. Furthermore, this paper provides a model that enables the development of university sustainability indicators, and eliminates some of the main weaknesses found in the models currently available. The model resulted in a set of 28 indicators, which form a flexible tool to assess sustainability of Iraqi universities which consist of (9) curriculums indicators, (7) social sustainability indicators, (3) transportation indicators and (5) green building and energy indicator, (2) recycling and waste management and (2) water use and conservation. These 28 indicators are suggested to be the key indicators for measuring the sustainability of the universities in Iraq