Measuring student perceptions of university sustainability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15170/MM.2023.57.KSZ.02.04Keywords:
sustainable university, importance-performance analysis, student satisfaction, student expectationsAbstract
THE AIMS OF THE PAPER
Modern universities are facing new challenges, including meeting sustainability objectives. It is therefore essential for them to be able to measure their sustainability performance and identify their strengths and weaknesses in this area. This paper combines the sustainable university scale developed by the author with an importance-performance analysis to explore key areas of university sustainability for the University of Miskolc.
METHODOLOGY
In order to measure the students' perceptions of university sustainability, a self-developed measurement construct consisting of 21 variables, the 'Sustainable University Scale', was developed and surveyed among the students of the University of Miskolc through an online questionnaire survey. The measurement scale was validated using a Cronbach's alpha. An importance-performance analysis was used to identify strengths and critical areas.
MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
The sustainable university scale proved to be a reliable construct for measuring different aspects of university sustainability, while the importance-performance analysis allowed the identification of strengths and weaknesses related to sustainability. Selective waste collection was found to be the most important element of perceived university sustainability.
RECOMMENDATION
The study, which can be useful for university policy makers (management) and researchers, presents a methodology and a scale that can contribute to the transformation of traditional universities into sustainable higher education institutions. The combination of the 'sustainable university scale' with an importance-performance analysis allows the management of any university to identify the sustainability strengths and weaknesses of the institution and, based on these strengths, to position the brand more effectively and increase student satisfaction by addressing weaknesses.
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