Investigation of the attitudes of first-year-students towards sustainability and environmental awareness at Széchenyi István University

At the Apáczai Csere János Faculty, we have been teaching environmental and sustainability education in teacher training for over 20 years. Trainee teacher are prepared for their future profession - including environmental education - by considering the concept of sustainability. In our previous studies, we analysed the environmental attitudes of children before and after forest school programs. Our current research focuses on the older generation. We prepared a questionnaire for first-year students arriving at the Széchenyi István University in September. It was filled in electronically by 553 students of the nine faculties of the university. Our aim was to study the environmental awareness of the first-year-university-students. In addition we aimed to survey their environmental attitudes, to map their knowledge, behaviour and emotions related to sustainability and environmental issues. Our further goal is to increase the effectiveness of sustainability education in our higher education practice, considering the results of the study and our resources