Community engagement drives sustainable higher education outcomes in GCC countries: an integrated three-pillar framework for culturally adapted implementation

Despite growing national investment in higher education reform across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—most notably under Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030—community engagement remains a critically underdeveloped dimension of sustainable higher education and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the region. A systematic scoping review, conducted in accordance with PRISMA-ScR protocols across Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC, identified 15 GCC-based studies from an initial pool of approximately 1,000 sources—evidence that, while directionally consistent, is predominantly cross-sectional and methodologically limited. Drawing on the ESD framework, Stakeholder Theory, and a three-stage framework development methodology comprising thematic synthesis, theoretical mapping, and contextual adaptation, this paper proposes an integrated conceptual framework that positions community engagement as a central driver of sustainable higher education in GCC countries. The framework is built around three theoretically derived and evidence-informed pillars—fostering institutional belonging, developing sustainability competencies, and promoting student wellbeing—advanced as theoretically coherent propositions requiring future quasi-experimental validation rather than empirically established findings. Critically, the framework makes three distinct theoretical contributions beyond existing ESD and Stakeholder Theory models: it specifies community engagement as the primary pedagogical vehicle for sustainability competency development; extends Stakeholder Theory toward a pedagogical sustainability framework; and theorizes culturally adapted pathways—including family-inclusive engagement design and gender-differentiated institutional strategies—that have no direct analog in Western-derived community engagement models. While formal community engagement structures exist across Saudi higher education institutions—exemplified by dedicated General Directorates of Community Partnership established in universities nationwide—the absence of a theoretically grounded sustainability framework renders these mechanisms operationally active yet strategically unfocused. The proposed framework offers a theoretically coherent foundation through which such existing structures can be purposefully redirected toward sustainable higher education goals, contextualized within Vision 200s sustainability and human development agenda.