Level of Sustainability Awareness among University Students in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia

Alsaati, Tasneem; El-Nakla, Samir; El-Nakla, Darin

doi:10.3390/su12083159

Cited by 74 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…These results are not consistent with the findings of Ahamad and Ariffin (2018) who considered social media as the primary source of information on sustainability for university students. Other actions should be implemented such as supporting activities, offering courses to influence students' sustainable knowledge and behaviors (Alsaati et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, attitude and practice toward sustainability among university students in UAE

Radwan

Khalil

2021

IJSHE

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Purpose This paper aims to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices adopted among University of Sharjah (UOS) students toward sustainability efforts done by their university. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was emailed to students with the assistance of the UOS Sustainability Office. The survey consisted of four sections assessing knowledge, attitudes, practices and preferred media to obtain sustainability information. A total of 200 responses from male and female students, representing 4 levels of study in sciences and humanities colleges, were received. Research data is analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics (version 26). For assessing knowledge, eight items were developed to measure if the student knew about the university’s projects and activities in the field of sustainability. For assessing attitudes, six items were developed to indicate the level of agreement or disagreement toward main sustainability issues. For assessing practices, ten items were developed to measure the frequency of acting in a sustainable manner. Findings Survey results showed an advanced level of basic knowledge among university students regarding the programs and activities conducted by UOS, and a positive attitude toward these efforts and toward the importance of supporting sustainable practices. Most of the participating students disagreed with limiting the use of cars on campus – this may be because of a cultural aspect among young people in the Emirati society, who consider driving cars as an essential part of their daily life. Most students also indicated that they care about the behavior that supports sustainability in the university environment, such as rationalizing water consumption and using environment friendly products. Research limitations/implications The study’s limitations are that it was applied to one university – UOS. The sample of the online survey was only 200 students from undergraduate students. Different universities may have their own sets of different environmental approaches, and because of this reason, university students may exhibit different levels of knowledge, attitude and practice toward sustainability in contrast to the findings from this study. Practical implications Findings from this research can give decision-makers a good picture of the university’s performance in accomplishing sustainability. The authors recommend that UOS sustainability communication programs should be more comprehensive, and not only limited to protecting the environment that some students perceive as the primary aspect of sustainability. These efforts must address all economic and social aspects emphasized by the United Arab Emirates 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is considered one of the first studies addressing sustainability efforts in Emirati universities and seeking to assess the level of student knowledge, attitudes and practices toward sustainability issues in the country. The study is crucial in providing better insights such as the level of knowledge, attitude and practices toward UOS sustainability performance. As found in this study, even with sufficient knowledge, students still lack the drive to convert them into actions. So, future research could investigate deeper into the barriers of converting sustainable knowledge and attitudes into practices. The results represent an added value to the research literature concerned with sustainability issues in the Arab world and the Middle East region. This paper will also contribute to the sustainability literature that will be benefited by other various organizations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, attitude and practice toward sustainability among university students in UAE

Radwan

Khalil

2021

IJSHE

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“…In addition, KSA was the largest utilizer of fossil fuels among the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries and ranked 15th among global countries in 2008 [7,8]. The buildings and construction sector accounts for majority of the energy consumption in the country, and the abnormally high consumption in the sector is as a result of the desert climate of the country, outdated construction sector, subsidized utilities, rapid growth, lack of awareness about sustainability, and absence of codes/guidelines [9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techno-Economic Assessment of Energy Retrofitting Educational Buildings: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

et al. 2020

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The buildings and construction sector accounts for the majority of the energy consumption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). For a sustainable future, energy consumption in the sector should be reduced and existing buildings need to be energy retrofitted. A number of studies present energy retrofitting of residential buildings in KSA; however, there is a lack of studies presenting retrofitting of educational buildings. Thus, the aim of this study is to adopt a BIM-based approach to assess Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) in a prototypical Government-built educational building in Dammam, KSA. The methodology consists of six prime steps, (1) case study data collection, (2) energy auditing, (3) proposing ECMs, (4) BIM model development, (5) energy assessment, and (6) economic assessment. The energy audit revealed several inefficiencies in the building construction and operation and four ECMs were proposed and simulated. It was found that annual energy consumption can be reduced by 22.7% in the educational building, and the investment for the four ECMs is paid back in 2.7 years only. Therefore, implementing the proposed ECMs is a viable option to energy retrofit such educational buildings in the country, and the presented BIM-based approach can be adopted to efficiently conduct the energy retrofitting process.

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“…A review of the literature suggests that efforts of students to ensure that their education has cross-cutting components of the SDGs have been recently evaluated by researchers in many countries, such as Brugmann et al [52] in Canada, Peña Miguel et al [53] in Spain, Manolis and Manoli [54] in Greece, Yang and Maresova [55] in China, Alsaati et al [56] in Saudi Arabia, and Priyadarshini and Abhilash [57] in India. Of further relevance is the questioning of current teaching by Pallant et al [58].…”

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confidence: 99%

Expectations and Interests of University Students in COVID-19 Times about Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru

Álvarez-Risco

Del-Aguila-Arcentales

Rosen

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the world, creating the need for new actions from society, including universities and companies. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of a global agenda, but this priority is not significant to university students. Although some research has focused on SDGs and university students, there is a lack of evaluation and comparison in Latin American countries. The current study aims to evaluate student knowledge of the SDGs, the relation of student professional careers to the SDGs, the importance of the SDGs for economic development after the COVID-19 pandemic, and student interest research in SDG issues. The study is carried out with students in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. The instrument was developed and validated. The highest score of level of knowledge was reported in Mexico and the lowest score in Colombia. This outcome can be explained by the availability of training programs in the universities about SDGs. The availability of programs created and promoted by the governments can also be a reason; however, students from Mexico are the ones who felt the most that the authorities are not making efforts to promote the SDGs. With research interests, interests in creating sustainable cities and communities, and responsible consumption and production were recognized for the four countries. The outcomes reveal several interesting insights through comparisons among the four countries considered according to descriptive analyses. Some SDGs were found to be more important for some countries than others. Interests were noted in research on some SDGs.

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Level of Sustainability Awareness among University Students in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia

Cited by 74 publications

References 46 publications

Knowledge, attitude and practice toward sustainability among university students in UAE

Knowledge, attitude and practice toward sustainability among university students in UAE

Techno-Economic Assessment of Energy Retrofitting Educational Buildings: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

Expectations and Interests of University Students in COVID-19 Times about Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru

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