###### Abstract  
Public sector organizations, primarily higher education institutions (HEIs), are facing greater levels of responsibility since adopting and committing to the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (SD) and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). HEIs are expected to provide guidance for various stakeholders on this matter, but also to implement this agenda and the SDGs in their institutions. Although the role of these organizations has been recognized, the fields and issues that HEIs should address on their path towards sustainability and SD are still unclear. To provide further clarity, a semi-systematic literature review on sustainability and SD in HEIs was conducted to identify both the key concepts and main research themes that represent sustainability and SD in HEIs and to identify research gaps. This review increases our knowledge of this topic and enhances our understanding of sustainability and SD in the context of HEIs.  
sustainability; sustainable development; higher education institutions; literature review [sub]subsubsub  
In September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for SD (the 2030 Agenda) was adopted by all United Nations member states, who agreed to fully implement the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda acknowledges the role played by public institutions in effectively implementing its SDGs [12], the fact that public sector organizations are crucial to maintaining SD, and the critical role filled by HEIs regarding sustainability and SD [1, 2, 6, 9, 11, 13]. In this role, HEIs are responsible for providing guidance on this matter to both internal stakeholders (e.g., students, staff, management) and external stakeholders (e.g., governments, other HEIs, funding bodies, businesses, citizens, the general public) [1, 3, 10]. HEIs carry out core activities (e.g., education, research, outreach and operations), thus having significant economic, environmental, and societal impacts [3]. The internal and external stakeholders of HEIs, in turn, expect the HEIs to be sustainable [7]. Although the role of HEIs and their impacts in the field of sustainability and SD has been recognized, the fields and issues that should be addressed by HEIs in the transition towards sustainability and SD are still unclear [6]. Moreover, no synthesis of the available literature on this topic is currently available [2]. Scholars have rarely explored how sustainability and the HEI SD mandates are understood in the scientific discourse or in practice, identified common aspects, or identified gaps [8]. To address these challenges and questions, a semi-systematic literature review (SSLR) was conducted. This SSLR was also carried out to develop a more systematic understanding of sustainability and SD in HEIs, to depict the research field, and to identify the research gaps [14]. The SSLR methodology is particularly useful when investigating a broader, multidimensional topic such as sustainability, enabling researchers to map theoretical approaches or themes and identify gaps in the literature [14]. This SSLR enabled us to investigate the literature on sustainability and SD in HEIs and to answer the following questions:  
* What relevant literature can be found when investigating sustainability and SD in HEIs and where is this literature published?
* What themes are addressed in the literature on sustainability and SD in HEIs?
* What research gaps are identified in the literature on sustainability and SD in HEIs?  
This research is structured as follows. In Section 2, the research methodology is presented. The review results are summarized in Section 3. In Section 4, the discussion, the limitations of this research, and propositions for further research are provided. Finally, in Section 5, the main conclusions are summarized.