Determination of environmental awareness of university students: the case of Suleyman Demirel University (SDU)

Abstract

An Environmental Intentions' assessment of the students enrolled in the National University of Colombia-Bogotá CampusThe deterioration of the Environment is caused largely by human action, hence the development of initiatives promoting environmental conservation is urgent and requires strategies aimed at changing people's behavior; under this panorama, the purpose of this research was to evaluate those factors that influence the intentions of environmental behavior of the Students of the National University of Colombia-Bogotá Campus from the Theory of Planned Behavior. Thus, a total of 418 students participated in the study through a virtual survey whose data was analyzed with the SmartPLS 3.0 program using the Structural Equation Modeling; the results of the proposed model showed that Perceived Behavioral Control and General Environmental Attitudes are the variables that predict the environmental behavior intentions of the Student population to a greater extent, followed by the Perceived Social Influence variable; in turn, the variable Perceived Organizational Support added to the model, proved not to be a strong predictor of said intentions. Findings obtained have both managerial and theoretical implications, since in the case of decision makers on campus, knowing which factors influence students' environmental behavior intentions is a good starting point to develop programs and / or campaigns of more effective Social Marketing that encourages people to participate in University-driven environmental practices. At a general level, the results obtained contribute to the expansion of the existing literature on the Theory of Planned Behavior and its usefulness within the University context to predict the environmental behavior of students.

Communication on Sustainability in Spanish Universities: Analysis of Websites, Scientific Papers and Impact in Social Media

“…However, there are universities that are advancing in the development of comprehensive, well-integrated sustainability programs, as shown by Blackburn [43]. In this process (development and practice of sustainability in universities) special attention should be given to students' environmental education programs in order to develop their engagement with sustainability [36,[48][49][50], both within and outside the university context.…”

Analysis of Further Education Students’ Attitudes Regarding Environmental Pollution. A Case Study in Granada

“…Therefore, based on this theoretical paradigm, several previous pieces of research related to the analysis of human attitudes and behaviours in university students towards the environment, are recognised [13,14]. These pieces of research are about the challenges and constraints that are still barriers to be broken down, not only in Further Education, but also for society as a whole [15,16].…”

“…Faced with this situation, Further Education students have questioned the approaches and measures on environmental awareness within educational disciplines, due to the scarcity of not only actions towards environmental preservation and conservation, but also national policies on EE in Further Education institutions [14].…”

Informing an Environmental Ethic in Future Leaders Through an Environmental Engineering Sequence

“…For example, a study by Müderrisoğlu and Altanlar [17] determined that the courses taken by students do not affect environmental behaviors and attitudes. However, Yazici and Babalik [21] found a statistically significant difference between students' college-level field of study and their attitude, awareness, and sensitivity towards the environment. One trend that appears common in these studies is an acknowledgement of the need for ongoing environmental learning at each level of students' education and into their workplace training to combat environmental illiteracy [10], [18], [21].…”