Perceived Education Courses that Inculcate Sustainability Awareness in Students of Higher Institution of Learning in Nigeria

Abstract

The Global demand for efficient use of natural resources in the production of the products of built environment sector prompted a serious concern to the industry practitioners and the academia. Thus, inclusion of courses that would enhance the expertise of trainees in the built environment related programmers in tertiary institutions of learning must be accorded utmost importance. Literature review has revealed that sustainability education and promoting awareness of it to students is crucial, hence focus on inclusion of sustainability principles and concept in curriculum of built environment programmes of institution of higher learning are crucial. The research aims to examine education courses that can be infused in the built environment programmes curriculum to help students understand the concepts of sustainability. The targeted groups of respondents are 500 level and HND II students of built environment in university and polytechnics. The survey design was adopted to gather data from 199 respondents representing 500 level and HND II students of built environment in Niger State, Nigeria. The data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney test statistics on SPSS to examine the distribution for single variables and assess education coursework with highest score values and p-values. The survey analysis revealed that there are significant differences in agreement among students by level of education (p>.05) and found to be significantly higher for 500 level. It is concluded from the result that the most effective education courses to inculcate sustainability idea in students are environmental impact assessment, and design and sustainable development.