Graduates with Environmental Knowledge and their Decision related to their Future Profession

Abstract

Education for sustainable development has become a key parameter of modern higher education. The integration of the concept of sustainable development into education represents a natural consequence of the growth of environmental awareness that began in the second half of the last century. This education has also gained importance in the context of the green economy. The main aim of the study is to investigate the impact of the teaching of environmental topics and sustainable development in terms of environmental knowledge on students' decisions regarding their future professions. Furthermore, the secondary aim is to find out whether students have pro-environmental values and attitudes. The research is based on a quantitative approach, where the questionnaire was chosen as the main instrument of data collection. The questionnaire includes the tool of environmental sociology, the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) & Human Exceptionalism Paradigm (HEP) analysis. The remaining questions are based on sub-hypotheses which draw on the theoretical part. The research results confirmed pro-environmental attitudes among university students. Basic characteristics of environmental education and the role of environmental knowledge as perceived by these students have also been described. The correlation analysis extended the findings in relation to the possible influence of environmental education on students’ decision regarding their future profession.