UKM's Staff Perspective on Sustainability and Its Contribution Towards a Sustainable University

AbstractUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) launched a Sustainable UKM Charter and a Sustainable UKM Programme with the theme ‘Sustainable UKM for Malaysia and the World’ in 2007, aimed to fulfill the full integration of sustainable development practices in the university by 2020. Accordingly, a study was carried out, aimed to determine the current level of sustainability knowledge, awareness, attitude and willingness to participate in sustainable development programmes, of UKM's staff through a survey by using questionnaires. A total of 425 respondents were selected based on a random sampling method. The result showed that the staff is less exposed to knowledge on sustainable development but less than 50% of them are unwilling to manage sustainable development activities and programmes for community. However, they admit that they can contribute ideas to implement UKM's sustainable programmes and believed that they have learnt more about the importance of protecting the environment from UKM. Gaps and weaknesses found in this study is a challenge to the UKM administration to create a sustainable campus. UKM needs to build the capacity for staff to establish and operate a sustainable campus