University students’ awareness and attitudes regarding environmental responsibility

Abstract

Drawing on UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for 2030 Framework, the importance of integrating environmental programs into different disciplines and subject areas at the tertiary education level is highlighted in the paper. The main aim was to investigate whether computer science students’ personal sense of responsibility and concern in regard to protecting the environment have grown over the years due to the availability of information on sustainability issues. Students’ attitudes toward taking a more active role in caring for the environment were examined and the results were compared with those from the previous study conducted in 2017. This earlier study was a part of an ecological approach to language teaching implemented in the professional English course at the University of Applied Sciences Velika Gorica. It is crucial to deepen the culture of ESD. Further, it appears that recent computer science students are better informed of sustainability practices as well as risks in the context of Green Information Technology (IT) area than the previous groups. With regard to that, by using a survey it was investigated if current computer science students’ attitudes toward more active pro-environmental behaviour and thinking were significantly more positive than of those students from the previous study.