The purpose of this paper is to examine how quality management system (QMS), corporate social responsibility (CSR) guidelines and programme accreditation requirements integrate to derive a set of quality indicators within the context of the higher education (HE) sector. After studying the related documents of ISO 9000: 2008 (QMS) and ISO 26000: 2010 (CSR), Engineering Accreditation Commission, Malaysia and Qualifications Framework, HK, three levels for sustainable development have been identified: stakeholder engagement, educational goals and community needs fulfilment at organisational level; awareness of environmental-friendly issues, competency-based concepts and provision of real-world exposure to learners at teacher level; and role identification of learners at learner level. Based on ISO 9000 clauses and the seven dimensions of ISO 26000 CSR guidelines and programme accreditation requirements, these three levels are then converted into quality indicators to assess quality performance of higher educational institutions for sustainability. This study fills the gap with integrating system thinking, humanitarian aspects of CSR and quality of programmes in HE context. The use of cross-disciplinary knowledge for sustainable development in HE enhances the contribution of this paper.
