Service-learning is a key pedagogical approach that helps educational institutions to achieve the goals of sustainability. Although, many service-learning programs have been started around the world by educational institutions, however, there is lack of an instrument to measure the issues and challenges to sustainability of service-learning. This research study aimed to develop an instrument to explore potential issues and challenges hindering the sustainability of service-learning programs. Based on a survey of literature, 10 frequently mentioned challenges and issues were identified. These were related to different themes of service-learning. These themes were (1) lack of clear design (2) poor planning (3) lack of program vision (4) poor collaboration among stakeholders (5) traditional assessment (6) insufficient duration (7) lack of reflective session (8) unclear placement (9) course guidelines and (10) lack of training and orientation. By using these 10 themes, a 52 items instrument was developed. The items were prepared for each of the themes and showed to subject experts for face validity. Based on their feedback, the items were refined, and a few items were deleted which were not clear.  The scale was pilot tested for reliability which was found above 0.70 in all the sub-themes of the instrument. A total of 325 teachers of seven vocational training colleges /institutes were purposely chosen for the study as they had participated in the service-learning course from three different zones of Punjab, Pakistan. Exploratory Factor analysis was used to determine the factor structure of the scale based on the 10 themes related to sustainability of service-learning.

 Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to verify the measurement model using AMOS version 18. The measurement model test provided empirical evidence for the confirmation of the 10 factors affecting sustainability of service-learning program. The analysis showed that Service-Learning Sustainability Scale (SLSS) was a reliable and valid tool to measure the factors affecting sustainability of service-learning programs in higher education. The instrument may be used for reviewing and improving the service-learning programs in higher education. The instrument may be tested in other fields for further refinement of the 10-factor model.