Addressing Environmental Concerns in Tertiary Education

Abstract

Marine pollution is a problem that is becoming more and more important for the sustainable use of oceans and blue growth. People who appreciate the significance of this problem are taking steps to raise awareness about the issue and educate all concerned to prevent it. In line with this, higher education institutions have started to educate their students to contribute to these efforts and to create an environmentally conscious generation. The introduction of new regulations to limit emissions and of new technologies to help to remove emissions, imposed development of cutting-edge programs in this context. The purpose of this paper is to determine what such a program addressing the needs of maritime in the future regarding marine environment protection should contain. One of the ways to determine the content of these programs is to ask for the opinions of the stakeholders in the sector. To see what their viewpoints and suggestions are, a 5- point Likert survey with 10 questions about issues related to the marine environment protection is used and outcomes of the survey were reinforced with a follow-up benchmarking study to determine the most suitable answer to the needs of stakeholders. Survey results pointed out the importance of the use of technology to minimize marine pollution, environmentally safe port and shipping operations, ecosystem-based approaches in the whole sector, and the benefits of the development of integrated maritime strategies to protect the marine environment. Taking these topics into consideration while preparing the contents of the courses about the marine pollution prevention and environment protection will help raise a more environmentally conscious generation who can protect and restore nature and provide ecological sustainability.