Publication

Abstract : Contemporary higher education is increasingly bound within a neoliberal paradigm that commodifies learning and marginalizes Indigenous Knowledge Systems. We present a case for Cultural Sustainability as a candidate fourth pillar of higher education, via a PRISMA-ScR-guided ADO (Antecedents-Decisions-Outcomes) scoping review. A single-database Scopus search (20 April 2026), a limitation, screened 135 records; 110 were included and coded across 23 variables. Initial inter-coder reliability was low (κ = 0.293), rising to κ = 0.946 only after non-independent reconciliation. The most prevalent antecedent, decision, and outcome were colonial legacy (26.4%), decolonial pedagogy (29.1%), and epistemic parity (46.4%), respectively. Arts integration was the smallest decision cluster (14 articles, 12.7%). It shows complete (100%) overlap with the coding instrument’s arts-as-epistemology variable—an artifact of two closely related codes capturing the same underlying judgment rather than independent convergence—but only 42.9% co-occurrence with the broader Fourth Pillar construct, below decolonial pedagogy’s 73.8%. Evidence is geographically concentrated in South Africa, limiting generalizability. SDG alignment was coded in only 4 of 110 articles (3.6%)—a gap that makes the SDG framing here largely our own interpretive contribution, not a finding from the literature. None of the included records used the terms “cultural sustainability” or “NEP 2020” directly; the NEP 2020 mapping is likewise interpretive, offered as testable propositions rather than an implementation-ready model.