Quality disclosure in sustainability reporting: results for the higher education sector

Purpose: Attention towards sustainability reporting is very high with reference to higher education. The paper aims to assess the maturity level of sustainability reporting and to measure its quality by evaluating the GRI indicators currently disclosed. Design/methodology/approach: The research was carried out using the inductive method. We delimited the study to universities and we evaluated the quality of sustainability reporting by analysing the indicators disclosed in 2012 reports according to GRI guidelines. Findings: The research gives an overview of sustainability reporting in universities by evaluating the quality level of their disclosure. The results confirm previous research by highlighting the necessity to improve sustainability reporting. Moreover, the results show there are differences between universities that are connected to the peculiarities of each country. They also enable us to draw up an initial classification of universities in the GRI database. Originality/value: The paper provides one of the first in-depth studies of sustainability reporting quality for universities included in the GRI database. Moreover, it is a response to the need for more sustainability research in the context of higher education.