‘Within the next 10 years, the higher education sector in this country will be recognised as a major contributor to society’s efforts to achieve sustainability – through the skills and knowledge that its graduates learn and put into practice, and through its own strategies and operations.’

(Higher Education Funding Council for England 2005,
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2005/05_28/)

What is this all about?

How do your subject choices at University effect how concerned you are about the environment? If you study an environmental subject, does that make you more environmentally aware? Or does studying the depth and complexity of environmental problems mean you simply feel overwhelmed and sceptical about the ability of individual to make a difference to environmental problems? Can higher education encourage us to become better environmental citizens?

This project aims to ascertain student views on ‘environmental citizenship’ from within different Geography, Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) disciplines and beyond.

What does the project involve?

The research project consists of:

1. A questionnaire which explores the opinions of Keele University Students on environmental citizenship and environmental behaviours. This will be distributed to students at different stages of their degree programme within the GEES disciplines and in other subject areas. 
2. ‘Focus-group’ meetings with students from the GEES and non-GEES disciplines at Keele in order to discuss environmental views and behaviour in more depth.

What will happen to the findings?

The results from the project will be reported in national and international journals concerned with the environment and with teaching in higher education. This web-site will also be used to report the latest findings from the project. All information derived from this project will be kept strictly anonymous  with all names and personal identifiers removed from materials intended for publication.

How is the project funded?

 Many thanks to the Higher Education Academy Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) subject centre who have provided initial funding for this research.