Education For Industry 5.0: Preparing Higher Education for Sustainable Development and AI Integration Challenges

The transition to Industry 5.0 requires a deep alignment between technological innovation, environmental responsibility, and high-quality education. This study investigates sustainability competency, perceived barriers to AI adoption, and curricular needs among 296 respondents (91 academics and 193 students) from four European countries. Using structured questionnaires and Mann–Whitney U tests, the analysis reveals significant differences (p < 0.001) in favour of students regarding sustainability competency (62% familiar with the role of AI in sustainability vs. 42% of academics). Both groups report substantial barriers to AI adoption – 51.6% of academics and 60.8% of students. Academics more frequently identify curricular needs (58.2%) related to curriculum updating and AI–sustainability integration, whereas only 21.6% of students explicitly comment on these aspects. The findings point to an urgent need for curricular reform, emphasising the integration of AI into circular business models, ESG-oriented education, and practice-based training for sustainable entrepreneurship. The paper proposes concrete recommendations for higher education institutions and European policy-makers to support a coherent educational response to Industry 5.0.