Sustainability 2023, 15, 2222. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032222 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Article Energizing Higher Education Sustainability through Rural‐Community Development Activation Muhammad Setiawan Kusmulyono 1,2, *, Wawan Dhewanto 1 and Melia Famiola 1 1 School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132, Indonesia 2 School of Business and Economics, Universitas Prasetiya Mulya, Jakarta 15339, Indonesia * Correspondence: muhammad_kusmulyono@sbm‐itb.ac.id or setiawan@pmbs.ac.id Abstract: Higher education institutions play important roles in the community. Unfortunately, measuring the accomplishment of HEIs in developing communities is challenging. Most HEI con‐ tributions to the community are merely a formality and moral obligation. This study’s identified gap is the absence of integration of community development activities into HEIs, which would boost their impact on environmental sustainability. This study intends to investigate how institutions that support entrepreneurial‐oriented community development affect students’ learning and impact so‐ ciety. This study employs an action research approach to develop long‐term actionable knowledge. This approach employed a case study from the Rural Community Development Program, a com‐ munity empowerment program based on institutionalized entrepreneurship practices (formal courses in the curriculum) from ABC University (a pseudonym). The RCDP allows the HEI to inter‐ act with society through a dual simultaneous cycle which allow knowledge transfer, social value transfer, and business development with its partners. This model allows more than 100 groups of students at ABC University to be more focused in developing community. On the theoretical side, the RCDP contributes by encouraging the role of social entrepreneurship courses which provides a more significant impact through practice‐based lectures while also significantly impacting rural communities’ business knowledge in developing their micro enterprises. Keywords: action research; community development; student course; actionable knowledge; village entrepreneurship 1. Introduction Higher education institutions (HEI) play important positions in the community [1]. HEIs can assist a country’s local‐to‐global development and play a unique role by enhanc‐ ing human capital, knowledge transfer, and technology commercialization through ex‐ perimentation and innovation [2–5]. As a result, the impact of HEIs is not just in economic development but also as a driver of knowledge for improving people’s well‐being [6]. An HEI can create many initiatives to strengthen communities by supporting local firms, providing policy recommendations to local and state governments, and participating in community outreach activities [6–8]. The intersection of higher education and society is a nascent research topic, specifi‐ cally in Indonesia. An HEI is usually focused on monitoring research and teaching per‐ formance [9], but it does not highlight its contribution to community development [10– 12]. This need is normal because universities are the center of significant knowledge and skills [13]. Participating in community development could represent a chance to fill a gap in the science of production and reproduction [13]. Measuring the accomplishment of HEIs in developing communities is challenging. The major hurdle is that the relationships between HEIs and communities is complicated and difficult to assess [10,12]. Furthermore, the variety of partnership models will make Citation: Kusmulyono, M.S.; Dhewanto, W.; Famiola, M. Energizing Higher Education Sustainability through Rural‐Community Development Activation. Sustainability 2023, 15, 2222. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032222 Academic Editor: Fausto Cavallaro Received: 24 December 2022 Revised: 18 January 2023 Accepted: 20 January 2023 Published: 25 January 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/license s/by/4.0/).