Assessment of sustainable university factors from the perspective of university students

Abstract

Abstract Given the growing global interest on the university's role towards promoting sustainability, an increasing number of universities are committing themselves to sustainability. Nonetheless, many of university stakeholders and academicians are unaware of sustainability principles. In the lack of sufficient studies to investigate the perceptions of major stakeholders within the university-setting on the role of the university in contributing to sustainability, the current study aims to investigate the perceptions of university students towards factors of a sustainable university by developing a reliable scale to assess sustainability practices of universities. Through examining the perception of 379 university students, a standard scale design process was applied. Upon validation of the proposed scale, a four-dimensional structure for the key factors of a sustainable university from the perspective of students was identified, including 1) community outreach, 2) sustainability commitment and monitoring, 3) waste and energy, and 4) land use and planning. Finally, implications were discussed.