Sustainability in higher education: A needs assessment on a course “Education and awareness for sustainability”

The purpose of the study was to make an assessment on the needs of university students regarded to be aware of environmental problems and sustainable development concept introduced in an undergraduate course. As a first part of course evaluation project, the needs assessment (NA) study comprising three steps was realized with 85 undergraduate students enrolling in the course Education and Awareness for Sustainability. NA questionnaire including both open-ended and closed-ended items was used for data collection. The responses to open-ended questions were subjected to content analysis whereas those to closed-ended items were subjected to statistical analysis. As the results suggested, students believed that education was the fundamental stage to constitute awareness for sustainability. The students indicated that the use of methods of discussion and brain storming were the best methods, and the instructional media such as computer and projector, video, and OHP were essentially important for developing awareness for sustainability. Almost all the students reported that the course aiming to introduce education and awareness for sustainability was beneficial for them to integrate the concept to their own profession and to develop awareness and sense of responsibility for protecting environmental resources.