Global trends of digitalization and globalization, together with the need to mitigatesustainability challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and loss of biodiversity,have led to significant changes in industries and education. This emphasizes the increasingimportance of sustainability in higher education and the role of experiential learning inaddressing societal challenges.

One way to achieve this is by incorporating real-life problems (challenges) into thecurriculum, thereby enhancing students’ understanding and skills. This study investigates howteachers achieve this by using external challenge providers in “Student-BusinessSustainability Challenges” (SBSC), a variant of Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) whereexternal stakeholders, such as companies, identify and present challenges to students.Furthermore, it examines to what extent this influences the pedagogical approach of CBL.

Based on semi-structured interviews with teachers involved in CBL and SBSC courses acrossEurope, we reveal that the involvement of external challenge providers significantly shapesthe challenges and enhances the learning experience. This underscores the importance ofcollaboration between educational institutions and external challenge providers in preparingstudents to tackle sustainability challenges effectively. The paper concludes that SBSC is avaluable pedagogical approach that combines the strengths of CBL and entrepreneurialeducation. It recommends further research to quantitatively assess the prevalence and impactof SBSC and to explore its benefits and potential drawbacks.