Abstract
Higher Education institutions are urged to move beyond embedding sustainability awareness into the curriculums, to effectively transferring it into practice. Yet the evidence on how to transfer awareness into actionable practice particularly within a specific discipline such as Engineering remains uncertain. The paper brings together two rounds of survey research conducted with undergraduate engineering students at the Applied Science University, Bahrain, to investigate students’ awareness and engagement levels in Sustainable development. The study develops a discipline-embedded framework for closing the gap between what engineering students know about sustainability and what they actually do. The first round (N = 44) measured the awareness, attitudes and self-reported pro-environmental behavior among the College of Engineering students. Outcomes reveal high awareness and favorable attitudes to sustainability but a “commitment gap” related to modest engagement in campus sustainability activities and pro-environmental practices. The second round (N = 45) investigated the barriers and motivators to participation and identified time pressure, weak event visibility and uncertain perceived impact as the major leading obstacles to this gap. Skill development opportunities, personal interest and discipline relevance were the leading motivators. Building on the survey outcomes, and on a three-year review of the College of Engineering’s own sustainability initiatives, the study proposes an integrated ENGAGE framework- Experiential learning, Networked mentorship, Guided curriculum integration, Accessible participation, Grounded communication, and Embedded policy- tailored to engineering education. The study also suggetss a three-year monitoring protocol, with for tracking whether the framework measurably narrows the commitment gap over time. A worked case study applying the ENGAGE framework and involving the redesign of a single sustainability-focused workshop is presnted to guide on the implementation of the framework. The novelty of the work lies an implementation model grounded in a measurement plan and study case example that turns the framework into something that can be evaluated rather than merely advocated.