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 address  sustainability on a university level it is important to find out whether students care about sustainability and about which parts, in order to better tailor the delivery of sustainable projects and sustainable practices throughout a student’s time at university.

One of the many things which we at DMU do in order to find answers to this question is participate in the Students Organizing for Sustainability (SOS-UK) and Higher Education Academy (HEA) Lifestyle survey. SOS-UK are an organization 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 skills and understandings have been covered by students in their courses so far, what students find to be the most beneficial ways of learning and to what a student’s future aspirations for their careers might 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 9 years now, in order to continually track student engagement and because of this we have been able to make comparisons over the years and found 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 85% of students in 2024 either agree or strongly agree that Sustainable development is something which universities / colleges should actively incorporate and promote, which is a very similar number from the 2023 data, but with an increased number of students agreeing more strongly about the statement. This shows that students still view sustainable development as an incredibly important factor during their studies at DMU and view it even more importantly every year. Building on this, students also demonstrated a drive to learn about skills which would be useful in developing their social and environmental skills, with about 89% of students agreeing or strongly agreeing on this. This is an increase on the 82% of students who agreed or strongly agreed in 2023, showing that students both care about sustainability and feel strongly about doing something positive in order to better help the environment and build a more sustainable society.

Regarding aspects of Fairtrade, trade justice, and ethical consumption, students have been found to engage with these concepts throughout their education at the institution. 40% of the students surveyed this year said that they had covered consumerism, global and ethical trade, with 39% saying they had covered social justice. This shows that students are aware of the issues that are being covered. When asked about the personal impacts of studying the above-mentioned issues, students said that the knowledge gained had an effect on them, as some students said that it was ‘good for career’, ‘makes you think about how you act in your day to day life’, ‘more politically aware’, ‘learning about social justice changed my view about the society and the hierarchy we exist in today’. This shows that students are aware of the issues that are faced in modern society and by being aware of trade justice, social justice and ethical consumption, they are on track to graduate into a society that they are ready to make changes to.

Furthermore, 78% of students either agree or strongly agree that DMU takes actions in order to limit its effects on people and the planet, which is again an increase on the 2023 data. This 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 over the past year in order to boost student engagement in sustainability projects. This is further enhanced by the fact that 77% of students believe that being a student at DMU encourages them to think and act in ways which help the environment and other people, which is a great improvement from the 65% of students in 2023, showing an even greater drive of student engagement in sustainability and sustainable practices, and further demonstrating DMU’s commitment to continue providing students with the necessary skills to make more positive impacts in their future careers and future lives.

So, returning to the proposed question, it can be seen that students still care about sustainability and in fact feel even more strongly about it every year. They are also even more willing to develop the necessary skills in order to better equip themselves to make a greater positive impact in their future careers and future lives. 

If you would like to see a further break down of the data, press here: SOS Skills Survey Data 2024 

By Adam Sandy-Kyari and Mollie Lester