The article examines motivation in higher education and relates it to the concept of sustainability. It consists of a theoretical examination of the terms ‘sustainable motivation’ and ‘academic motivation’, and specifically postulates and explains the concept of ‘sustainable academic motivation’. Sustainable academic motivation is defined as proactive interconnection of basic ideas of sustainability and basic characteristics of academic motivation. With primary attention on disclosing appropriate measures for building sustainable academic motivation, an empirical part presents the results of sociological questioning carried out on n = 181 teachers, administrators, and managers of Slovak and Polish universities. Higher financial evaluation and creating good relationships were found to be the most desirable motivation measures. Results also emphasized a discrepancy between opinions of university managers versus opinions of scientists and teachers regarding effective motivation. Based on the results, and with the support of other opinions, sustainable academic motivation is subsequently defined from five perspectives: (a) As the most important component of conscious behavior; (b) as the starting point of behavior; (c) as the accelerator of behavior and development; (d) as the process; and (e) as the resultative level of all motivational efforts and powers at higher-education institutions. The final part of the article contains recommendations for university management, when affecting and building sustainable academic motivation.

Sustainability has to penetrate more and more into higher education. It should not focus only on traditional elements. It should also enter new, but for future improvement, extremely important areas. Based on this premise, creativity and motivation, when additionally interconnected and supported by trust that is provided and achieved, decide on the progress and sustainability of universities. This connection is gaining importance especially from the point of view of building solid foundations and mechanisms that functionally preserve the potential effects of these elements in the future. For this reason and following the nature, importance, and content of sustainable academic motivation (SAM), the paper introduces two new concepts: sustainable academic creativity (SAC) and sustainable academic trust (SAT). For further original contributions, the paper hypothesizes the existence of mutual—spiral—relations of sustainable academic motivation (SAM), sustainable academic creativity (SAC), and sustainable academic trust (SAT). The empirical section tests the validity of this claim in the universities of two countries: the Slovak Republic and Poland. A survey performed on a sample of $n=181$ pedagogical, scientific, management, and administrative staff in higher education confirms the existence of these spirals. The results indicate the spiral effect of motivation when connected with creativity and trust and show that it is accented by the crucial principles of sustainability (responsibility, novelty, usefulness, progress, etc.). Therefore, the paper’s conclusion contains the explanations for the potential occurrence of three types of sustainably mutual systems and complexes. These are: (a) individual sustainable systems of SAM, SAC, and SAT; (b) group/sectional sustainable systems of SAM, SAC, and SAT; and (c) the global sustainable complex of SAM, SAC, and SAT in the university.