Engineering Students' Perceptions Towards Promoting Sustainability

Abstract

Engineers should play a major role in making progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, Engineering Education has an important responsibility for preparing engineering students to the future challenges by promoting sustainable development (SD) and implementing sustainability development education. The purpose of this study was to gauge engineering students' knowledge and perceptions whether they believe their institution is successfully promoting sustainability. It also aimed to have a better understanding to what extent the university has strategically incorporated sustainability into their faculty. We have conducted a quantitative online survey with the participation of 253 engineering students from different majors at Bachelors and Masters levels. SPSS was used to analyze and study the variations and parallels amongst the majors and to confirm the accuracy of the data. The study revealed that, despite various active sustainability development university initiatives, the engineering students' perception is that their university is not effectively promoting the principles of SD.