Professional identity among faculty members in private higher education institutions plays a vital role in shaping the quality and sustainability of these institutions. This research aims to investigate the factors influencing the professional identity of teachers in Chengdu's private higher education institutions. The study employs a theoretical framework centered on "identification" with behavior intention, behavior attitude, and sense of belonging as fundamental dimensions. Data were collected through questionnaire surveys and analyzed using SPSS 23.0. The study hypothesizes that behavior intention, behavior attitude, and sense of belonging have a significant positive impact on professional identity among faculty members. Additionally, behavior attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are expected to have a significant positive influence on behavior intention, and subjective norms and perceived usefulness may positively affect sense of belonging. The results are expected to provide valuable insights for enhancing the professional satisfaction and educational quality of faculty in private higher education institutions.

Sketching on stimulus-organism-response theory, this study aims to investigate the mediating effect of environmental passion on the relationship of the environmentally specific servant leadership with employees’ green behavior. Using purposive sampling approach, the authors adopted one month time-lagged approach to collected data from 232 academic employees in higher education institutions of China. Response rate in this study is 46.40%. The partial least-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was conducted in the smartpls 4.0 software to test the proposed hypotheses. The current empirical findings confirm that environmentally specific servant leadership significantly positively influence employee’s environmental passion and environmental passion significantly positively affects the employee’s workplace green behaviors. This current finding offered support in favor of mediating impact of environmental passion on the “environmentally specific servant leadership-employees workplace green behaviors” relationship. To the best of authors, this study is among pioneers’ studies to investigate the integrated relationship of environmentally specific servant leadership, environmental passion and green behavior in higher education institutions context of China. Limitations and implication have been elaborated at the end.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity for educators and policymakers to reconsider education systems and rethink what is essential, necessary, and desirable for future generations. A sequential generic qualitative approach was used in this study. Based on the systematic literature review, a content analysis was conducted to identify dimensions that contribute toward higher education institutions sustainability. Subsequently, the Expert Opinion method that involved five professors holding key positions in respective universities from Malaysia, the Netherlands, India, and Bangladesh was applied to propose a post-COVID-19 sustainable framework. Four themes: 1) educational reform; 2) digital transformation; 3) resilience and change management; and 4) sustainability coupled with agility and flexibility formed the framework for HEIs’ sustainability during the post-COVID-19 pandemic. We propose that the themes be examined from an integrated perspective to ensure HEIs can be sustainable in the long run. Finally, other scholars are recommended to conduct a tracer study as well as develop qualitative instruments based on the themes and dimensions identified from the systematic literature review and the Expert Opinion Method to better understand the phenomenon of HEI sustainability.