Sustainability in Higher Education: Students' Attitude and Perspectives

Chelsea, Michcal and Ahmad Nizar, Yaakub and Hasnain, Hussain and Zainab, Ngaini and Samuel, Lihan (2022) Sustainability in Higher Education: Students' Attitude and Perspectives. In: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Conference, 15 Jun 2022, Pullman Hotel, Kuching Sarawak.

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Abstract

Within the recent decades, there is an emerging trend in higher education as curriculum and administration seek to incorporate the goals of sustainability and development. In Malaysia, a lot of campus-based initiatives that seek to forward the goals of sustainable development also took off. However, students; involvement in these initiatives is understudied despite the students being the largest demographic in the university's population. The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of a public or private university student's knowledge on sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The objective of the study is to analyze the outcome of the perceived knowledge on sustainability towards student behaviour. It also tries to examine the manners in which students can contribute towards sustainable development efforts given the challenges and obstacles they currently face. In this research, a qualitative method was employed to evaluate students' attitudes and perspectives on sustainability in a prominent public (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) and private (Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak) universities in Kuching, Sarawak. In-depth interviews were held with students from both universities. The selected interviewees consist of student leaders who possessed the authority to speak on the issue and on behalf of their peers. Students' knowledge and the ability to transform the knowledge into practice are the focal concern of the in-depth interview. The result of the interview shown that students are generally aware of the concept of sustainable development and the contemporary issues related to it. They were also able to articulate the inclusion of the UNSDGs in their campus life such as in their curricular or extracurricular activities. However, there were a few differing opinions on the adequacy of sustainable behaviours and the ongoing efforts done to address sustainability issues.

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