Is students’ energy literacy related to their university’s position in a sustainability ranking?

Abstract

University rankings are increasingly important internationally, and in the UK include a sustainability ‘Green League’. However, there is little evidence about experiences of studying in ‘sustainable universities’. We report an empirical study at five universities in varied positions in the Green League, exploring students’ energy literacy, environmental attitudes and perceptions of their institution’s energy-saving efforts. Although the link to energy literacy is not clear, findings suggest that there are significant differences between students’ environmental attitudes at universities placed at different points in the league. In addition, students at higher ranked universities are more positive about their university’s energy-saving efforts, suggesting that these institutions may exhibit more overt manifestations of sustainability. This is important since students report being more likely to choose energy-conservation behaviours if there is visible representation of energy use. The study is the first to attempt a comparison between universities at different positions in a sustainability ranking.

Keywords:

• Energy literacy
• student attitudes
• higher education
• league tables
• informal education
• hidden curriculum

Notes

1. http://peopleandplanet.org/university-league

2. https://stars.aashe.org/

3. http://greenmetric.ui.ac.id/

4. https://old.peopleandplanet.org/green-league-2013/tables

5. Some caution is needed when interpreting NEP scores, partly because of the subjectivity in determining ‘mean’ environmental worldviews and partly because the aggregation required to produce overall NEP scores can be variable between different authors (such that the meaning of a low NEP score differs).