Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the present day as the effects of climate change are becoming more widespread and increasingly severe. In order to develop our approach to sustainability on a university level it is important to find out whether students do care about sustainability and whether they would get involved in sustainability projects should they have the opportunity.
One of the many things which we at DMU do in order to find answers to this question is participate in the Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) and Higher Education Academy (HEA) Lifestyle survey. SOS-UK are an organisation who focuses their attention on student attitudes towards sustainability. For the purpose of the survey, it was advertised as a ‘lifestyle survey’ instead of a ‘sustainability survey’ in order to reduce bias in the results.
In regards to the survey itself, there were questions ranging from what are the reasons students would choose a university, what students may have experienced during their course and to what a student’s plans may be in the future, as well as questions surrounding sustainability at, in and during their course or place of study. DMU has taken part in the survey for 8 years now, in order to continually track student engagement and we have received similar results every time demonstrating that students do care about sustainability and that in general, they are feeling stronger towards sustainability and sustainable practices each year.
SOS-UK have used the findings of the research in order to better tailor their sustainability projects across the country, including projects such as; Green Impact, Student Switch Off, Student Eats and Responsible Futures.
In order for an institution to receive their data after the completion of the survey, at least 100 responses need to be submitted to SOS-UK and once SOS-UK have collated the data from every participating institution, they distribute the data to institutions which ask for it after about 2 weeks. At DMU we have successfully managed to provide over 100 responses for the past 9 years, allowing us to make invaluable comparisons about student attitudes towards sustainability over that time.
An example from the results of the data is that 86% of students in 2023 either agree or strongly agree that sustainable development is something which universities / colleges should actively incorporate and promote, showing that students view sustainable development as an incredibly important factor during their studies at DMU. Building on this, students also demonstrated a drive to learn about skills which would be useful in developing their social and environmental skills, with 82% of students agreeing or strongly agreeing on this, showing that not only do students care about sustainability, they also want to do something positive themselves in order to better help the environment and build a more sustainable society.
Furthermore, 74% of students either agree or strongly agree that DMU takes actions in order to limit its effects on people and the planet, which is a very positive message as it demonstrates both an awareness of sustainability and sustainable practices and also student acknowledgement of the university’s actions. This is further enhanced by the fact that 65% of students believe that being a student at DMU encourages them to think and act in ways which help the environment and other people, so further showing student engagement in sustainability and sustainable practices, and demonstrating DMU’s commitment to providing students with the necessary skills to make more positive impacts in their future careers and future lives.
So, returning to the proposed question, from all that was shown it can be seen that students do care about sustainability, they are feeling stronger about sustainability year on year and are willing to develop the skills in order to make a positive impact themselves.
To see a full break down of the data since 2016, please follow this link
By Adam Sandy-Kyari