Teaching Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions: Assessing Hospitality Students’ Sustainability Literacy

Abstract

Currently, higher education (HE) institutions include sustainability concepts into their programs. Previous literature examined the opportunities and challenges of integrating sustainability at an institutional, curricular, and instrumental level. We administered the Sulitest (sustainability literacy test) and a survey to first semester students at one international hospitality management school in Switzerland. While our students scored slightly higher than the Swiss average, the lowest scores recorded derived from the category knowledge-role to play, individual & systemic change. The survey demonstrated students' high interest and strong support of sustainability in their academic and professional careers. Over 67% of respondents rated sustainability for their professional lives as extremely important. HE institutions have the opportunity to teach sustainability concepts that resonate with students. While research promotes embedding sustainability in all courses, our results show that students' sustainability knowledge can improve in one intensive course. Further studies must be conducted to confirm retention and engagement.

Sustainable practices in hospitality pre and amid COVID‐19 pandemic: Looking back for moving forward post‐COVID‐19

“…Hospitality higher education institutions could produce multidisciplinary projects, adapt their courses and curriculum, and launch sustainability initiatives with the support of the administration, alumni, and community stakeholders, to make their graduates become the positive change agents of the future (Zizka & Varga, 2020 ). It is necessary for hospitality and leisure management programs around the world to re‐evaluate their undergraduate curricula in order to prepare positive social change agents for the 21st‐century workplace (Zizka, 2021 ).…”

Sustainability in Top Hospitality/Leisure Management Programs: Teaching for a Sustainable Future?

“…However, there is no consensus on how to address the three pillars of sustainability in education. There is an unequal distribution of understanding and consideration reported in the literature: Environmental is reported first and most often; economic is the most elusive, and social is under-assessed (Zizka & Varga, 2020). According to a study by Zeegers and Clark (2013), 87% of participants cited environmental examples of sustainability; 69% cited economic examples, and 49% cited social examples, thus reinforcing the perception that environmental issues are considered above all others.…”

“…While sustainability is important for accreditation and reputation, sustainability concepts have not been taught consistently within hospitality management programs (Deale & Barber, 2012;Sisson, Grisamore, & Jang, 2020;Zizka & Varga, 2020) as there are discrepancies between the aims, objectives, or necessity of such courses. Previous literature concurred that the hospitality industry's negative impacts must be offset with its positive impacts (Deale & Barber, 2012;Zizka, 2018), but agreeing on how to proceed has been problematic.…”

“…Previous literature concurred that the hospitality industry's negative impacts must be offset with its positive impacts (Deale & Barber, 2012;Zizka, 2018), but agreeing on how to proceed has been problematic. While industry experts may question the relevance of teaching sustainability in hospitality education (Deale & Barber, 2012;Lee, Kang, Choi, & Olds, 2020), other studies have shown that students perceive sustainability as a crucial topic for their education and future success (Zizka, 2018;Zizka & Varga, 2020).…”

Pro-environmental awareness of university students – assessment through sustainability literacy test

“…Currently, there is no established methodology for SD learning and teaching in higher education institutions (HEIs); hence, there is a need for its methodic implementation and agreement on the topic of sustainable literacy (Melles and Paixao-Barradas, 2019). HEIs have been critical in molding future pioneers and have emerged from the outdated imperious courses of unique ideas to more student-focused learning, thereby encouraging the mindset shift of just pursuing a degree to developing lasting learners (Zizka and Varga, 2020). Thus, the idea of introducing and including sustainability into educational programs and in the operating strategy of HEIs, to shape students to become pioneers who care about their environments is being adopted by several HEIs internationally (Zizka and Varga, 2020).…”