The Role of Academic Challenge and Support in Promoting Sustainable Student Development in Higher Education

The reconciliation between the academic challenge students face and the academic support they receive within a university environment has been identified as a significant factor in their sustainable development. This study sought to explore the pathways through which academic support and academic challenge affect the sustainable development of college students in China. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was conducted on undergraduate learning and development among 1,104 students at a comprehensive, research-oriented, key national university in China, and the data were analysed using the challenge–support theory as a framework. The results indicated that the academic challenges posed by learning strategies and academic expectations positively affected student sustainable development. Academic support was also found to have a positive effect on student sustainable development and mediate the relationship between academic expectations and student sustainable development, as well as between learning strategies and student sustainable development. The study’s results can be used as a practical guide for higher education institutions to promote student sustainable development based on the challenge–support theory.