Attitudes of university students towards environmental responsibility

Abstract

This dissertation's objective was to investigate whether the attitudes of students from the University of Malta are positive or not with respect to environmental themes on a local and global scale. The method used to conduct this research was a questionnaire based survey using the Likert scale. The method used to distribute the questionnaire was random sampling, in order to gather feedback from a variety of faculties. The questionnaire was distributed by hand as well as through a computer program which was distributed through the Internet. A total of 264 respondents from nine different faculties completed the questionnaire. Direct feedback was also gathered from the students. The main results that came out of this study were that in general, the students had a positive environmental attitude towards most environmental themes, with the highest attitude towards Urbanisation followed by Biodiversity and Climate Change. Differences between the attitudes were found for Gender, between the Faculties, and from where the students acquire their environmental knowledge. The female respondents showed a higher positive attitude than the male respondents and the Faculty of Education students had a more positive attitude on most of the statements. One of the recommendations suggested was to apply a whole university approach where sustainable development is placed at the forefront.