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Original Articles

Preparing future professionals to act towards sustainable development: an analysis of undergraduate students’ motivations towards voluntary activities

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Pages 157-165 | Received 12 Jun 2020, Accepted 28 Jul 2020, Published online: 03 Sep 2020
 

ABSTRACT

Considering the need to prepare students to act towards sustainable development, volunteering activities can be an effective mean for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to develop the required skills in students for it. In this sense, this research aims to analyse the reasons for undergraduate students to participate in voluntary activities. Data from 192 undergraduate students were collected to conduct this analysis. These students were divided into two groups: those that participate (or recently participated) of social projects and those that do not participate. Considering this feature as the dependent variable, seven independent variables were analysed through Binary Logistic Regression. From the seven variables analysed, two were validated as variables that affect the decision of students to engage in voluntary activities: ‘Incentive from the HEI for students to participate in volunteer programs’ (V4) and ‘The student’s own beliefs lead to voluntary work’ (V7). Their odds ratios were 2.901 and 3.164, respectively. The findings of this research contribute to the literature about volunteering, since it explores the motivations that lead undergraduate students to engage in these activities. The findings showed the importance of HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) incentives towards volunteering, which emphasizes the role played by these institutions in students’ actions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, ISR, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) under Grants 307536/2018-1 and 305442/2018-0; and by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001, under process 88887.464433/2019-00.

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