Technological University Dublin
EN-4: Sustainability Culture Assessment

Sustainability Education conducted the Student Survey on SDG Awareness has been delivered to our incoming cohort of new students in both 2023 and 2024. In 2023 the survey was completed by 2463 students (a 45% response rate). In 2024, the survey was responded to by 3297 students (57% response rate). 

The survey assessed students’ knowledge of the SDGs as they arrived into the University, and asked them how they would like to engage with Sustainability and Climate Action in the University.

Awareness of the SDGs was surprisingly low, with only 33% (2023) and 27% (2024) saying that they knew a little bit or more about the SDGs.  This information has been shared with the Irish National Advisory group for Educational for Sustainable Development which is responsible for ESD across all educational levels.

There were consistent responses in how students wished to address social/ environmental societal challenges while in University.  The most popular response was through “relevant TU Dublin clubs & societies” (21% both years).  The next most popular options were closely ranked, all being ranked by 13-14% of students in both years: “Work with classmates on solving real world sustainability/climate challenges through projects”; “Take a module/subject related to sustainability”; and “Attending sustainability/climate action events”.

When students were asked, “What kind of actions have you taken to address social and/or environmental sustainability in the past 5 years?” the responses were again quite consistent across the two cycles.  The two most common answers were “Changed your everyday behaviour (e.g. using more sustainable travel; not buying goods manufactured in countries with poor labour laws & rights; eating more plant-based foods)” (25-26%) and “Participated in actions related to social/environmental issues organised by your school” (21-22%)

This survey will be repeated each year to get a longitudinal view of sustainability culture within the University.

TU Dublin University Executive Team is formed of the President, all the Faculty Deans and Vice Presidents. including the VP of Sustainability (Ref1). The UET is the space where pan-university sustainability strategies (Ref2) are discussed and support by all academic and non-academic functions. The UET and the Strategic Development office created TU Dublin Strategic Plan with sustainability pillars and sustainability key performance indicators applicable to the entire university (Ref3). The Strategic Plan is a key tool to measure the measurement of sustainability culture change. The UET informs and gets suport from TU Dublin Governance (Ref4) which consists of the Governing Body, Governing Body committes inclusing an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion committee (Ref5), and TU Dublin Academic Council including the University Programme Board, Academic Quality Assurance & Enhancement Committee, and Student Experience Committee.
The VP of Sustainability developed a team of five functions (with more being expected) further supporting the measurement and implementation of change over time with the 1) Sustainability Education team in close collaboration with faculties, and schools, 2) Decarbonisation team in collaboration with Estates & Campus, and Campus Planning, 3) Societal Engagement team in collaboration with partnerships, communication office, research office, faculties and schools, 4) Sustainability Project team providing versatility of projects across all functions, and 5) the Sustainability Intelligence team as the backbone to acquire, clean, process, and analyse the university's sustainability data and consequently support every univerity's functions in the design and assessment of sustainability culture. Each sustainability team draw support to measure and implement change with relevant Univresity committees and board under the university governance. For examples, Sustainable Intelligence & Sustainable Education work with (i) Academic Affairs on the Academic Quality Assurance & Enhancement Committee, (ii) programme coordinators and heads of schools on the University Programmes Board; Sustainability Intelligence works with the EDI office on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

URL References:
Ref1: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/uet/
Ref2: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/vision--progress/sustainability-strategy/
Ref3: https://www.tudublin.ie/media/website/explore/about-the-university/strategic-plan/documents/Strategic-Plan-2024-2028-FINAL.pdf
Ref4: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/governance/
Ref5: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/governance/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-committee/