Introduction: in the context of global environmental challenges, university education emerges as a fundamental pillar to cultivate proactive attitudes towards sustainability. This research not only seeks to influence individual perceptions, but also the ability of these students to contribute significantly to policies and decision-making processes related to the environment.
Objective: implement a methodological proposal that uses educational events, artistic events and social responsibility projects to strengthen attitudes towards environmental sustainability in university students.
Method: a quantitative approach and a pre-experimental design were used, applying pre-test and post-test to students from five majors at a public university. The intervention was based on four thematic axes: classification and selection of solid waste, rational use of water, efficient use of electrical energy and university safety.
Results: the results revealed positive changes in student attitudes, with significant increases in solid waste classification (from 28 % to 72 %), university safety (from 32 % to 75 %), rational use of water (from 34 % % to 76 %) and energy efficiency (from 43 % to 82 %). In addition, a strengthening of continuous environmental knowledge was observed by 46 %, representing an increase of 81 %.
Conclusions: these findings suggest that universities can play a crucial role in promoting environmental educational policies that train professionals committed to nature and future generations, thus contributing to the construction of a paradigm that integrates ethics and socio-environmental responsibility.
The dominant model of universities, especially in the social sciences, is often based upon academic disciplines, objectivity, and a linear knowledge-transfer model. It facilitates competition between academics, educating students for specifc professions from an objective, descriptive, and neutral position. This paper argues that this institutional model of universities is inadequate to contribute efectively to societal transitions towards just and sustainable futures. Taking the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), the Netherlands, as an example, this paper illustrates the problems with the dominant (twentieth century) model of universities in the social sciences and explores what strategies universities can develop to transform. It introduces the notions of transformative research and transformative education: transdisciplinary, collaborative, and action-oriented academic work that explicitly aims to support societal transitions. It presents the design impact transition (DIT) platform as an ‘institutional experiment’ at the EUR and a concerted and strategic efort that lays bare current lock-ins of the dominant university model and the kind of institutional work needed to transform universities.