Climate consciousness and behaviour of students of a civil engineering university: problems of education

Abstract

The article addresses climate change and environmental degradation in many parts of the planet. Cities demonstrate an increase in air temperature; urban heat islets affect human health and rise mortality rates. This requires a change in an approach to urban planning and design, a modified of urban structure, which in turn require better environmental and climate education for students who are future civil engineers, urban planners and architects. The article discusses the results of a sociological survey conducted among students of National Research Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (NRU MGSU), which demonstrates their climate consciousness, understanding climate change triggers, as well as the willingness to combat the negative effects of climate change. The primary data, obtained in the course of the survey, were compared with the data other surveys, launched by the All-Russian Public opinion Research Centre (VCIOM), research holding ROMIR, and Eurobarometer. The conclusion was that some students of MGSU were poorly informed of the extent of climate change. In general, they judge correctly about their causes and consequences, take some actions to prevent and mitigate the scale of disasters, but that's not enough. It is necessary to improve environmental and climate education and practical training of students through improvement of educational programmes.