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This study aims to evaluate the current state of sustainability education and research capacity at engineering faculties. More specifically, this research is intended to provide new and much-needed information about sustainability knowledge, teaching and research activities.

The first method used is a questionnaire survey completed by teachers and researchers about their activities dealing with sustainability and the second is based on a systematic literature review at the SCOPUS database for scientific publications on sustainability by Palestinian universities in the Palestinian context, and the number of publications in fields related to sustainability in Scopus indexed journals.

Some institutions include more sustainability topics in their teaching courses and research activities than others. The number of courses per teaching staff and department and the sustainability contents vary among the selected universities. Teaching activities focus on environmental sustainability, especially on energy, thermal and water efficiency. The number of Scopus indexed publications in fields related to sustainability in the past 20 years is low. The highest number of published papers was those focused on environmental sustainability.

This study has implications for university researchers and educators by identifying the gaps between the teaching and research conducted and the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. For policymakers, the study shows that the status of sustainability in higher education, mainly at engineering schools, is still in great need for universities’ and government’s support, for example, to increase the number of published papers, number of courses and master programmes addressing sustainability.

This paper provides a current status for integrating sustainability education and research at engineering schools. The output of this study can be useful for future research to analyse higher education institutions’ impacts on sustainable development.

Traditionally, in Palestine, outdoor spaces played a crucial role in organizing and improving the living quality of the living units, while this important role in modern housing design is lost by a stark separation between internal and private external spaces (balconies, verandas and yards). This separation is disconnecting private inside and outside spaces whereas in the traditional courtyard houses there was a continuity between the inside and the outside. This paper investigates the socio-environmental criteria and characteristics of private outdoor spaces that could play an improving role in the living quality of future housing design. So, a comparative study between contemporary and traditional outdoor spaces characteristics was carried out in two different cities in two different climatic zones of Palestine. The contemporary housing was evaluated by conducting a survey over 300 dwellings of different housing typologies (detached houses/apartment flats), while the characteristics of traditional design were analyzed from the old historical part of these cities. The results of this paper demonstrate that the private outdoor space is a major contributor to enhance housing sustainability. It presents the distinctive qualities of courtyard concept, which ought to be reintroduced consciously into the design of future housing in order to improve the living quality. The paper also identifies the most important factors that ensure those qualities and forms the basis for further research.