<p>The integration of creative thinking and sustainability competencies has become a key priority in higher education in response to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 21st-century learning demands. However, implementation remains uneven across institutions. This study investigates how creative thinking and sustainability competencies are integrated in Indonesian higher education and identifies existing implementation gaps. A mixed-methods design combining a quantitative survey of students and lecturers (<i>n</i> = 200 aggregated response units) with a PRISMA-based Systematic Literature Review was employed to analyze pedagogical practices, curriculum alignment, and institutional support. The findings reveal significant implementation gaps, particularly in facilitating creative projects (− 28%) and integrating SDGs into curriculum design (− 27%). While collaborative and project-based learning are present, they are not systematically supported, and sustainability is often treated as supplementary content rather than as an analytical framework. These gaps reflect misalignment between curriculum goals, assessment systems, lecturer readiness, and institutional structures. This study proposes an integrative framework that aligns creative thinking indicators (originality, flexibility, elaboration) with sustainability competencies (systemic, anticipatory, normative, and strategic) through three key dimensions: pedagogy, assessment, and institutional support. The findings provide practical implications for curriculum redesign, lecturer development, and policy alignment to support more coherent and sustainability-oriented higher education systems. This study contributes by offering an empirically informed model to bridge the gap between policy expectations and classroom implementation.</p>