Opoku, A and Egbu, C (2018) Students' perspectives on the relevance of sustainability literacy in a postgraduate built environment program. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 14(1), pp. 46-58. ISSN 1557-8771
Abstract
Achieving sustainable development in the built environment requires the human resource with the right sustainability knowledge and skills to respond to the challenge facing the construction industry. It is argued that educational institutions have a key role to play in educating future generations with the right sustainability knowledge and skills. This research explores the relevance of sustainability literacy to postgraduate students enrolled in a quantity surveying (QS) course at the London South Bank University. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach that examines students' perspective on the importance of sustainability literacy and how it has been integrated in the program through interview with 15 students followed by a survey with 98 part-time and full-time students enrolled on the course. The results revealed that students value sustainability knowledge and skills. Most students believe that they need to be sustainability literate to be competitive in the job market. More than half of the students (53%) argued that sustainability literacy was delivered sometimes with a satisfaction rate of 45%, which shows that students are not really happy with how sustainability literacy has been embedded in the course and argues that more needs to be done to fully integrate sustainability literacy in the program.;Achieving sustainable development in the built environment requires the human resource with the right sustainability knowledge and skills to respond to the challenge facing the construction industry. It is argued that educational institutions have a key role to play in educating future generations with the right sustainability knowledge and skills. This research explores the relevance of sustainability literacy to postgraduate students enrolled in a quantity surveying (QS) course at the London South Bank University. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach that examines students' perspective on the importance of sustainability literacy and how it has been integrated in the program through interview with 15 students followed by a survey with 98 part-time and full-time students enrolled on the course. The results revealed that students value sustainability knowledge and skills. Most students believe that they need to be sustainability literate to be competitive in the job market. More than half of the students (53%) argued that sustainability literacy was delivered sometimes with a satisfaction rate of 45%, which shows that students are not really happy with how sustainability literacy has been embedded in the course and argues that more needs to be done to fully integrate sustainability literacy in the program.;
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | literacy; higher education; built environment; quantity surveying; sustainability; education for sustainable development; postgraduate; students; skills; surveying; part time; sustainable development; universities; construction industry |
| Index terms: | postgraduate, construction industry, built environment, sustainability literacy, satisfaction, interview, survey, surveying, program, part time, sustainable development, higher education, London, human resource |
| Subjects: | software systems, higher education, educational innovation, Geography, industry analysis, health monitoring assessment and metrics, educational institutions, project delivery, infrastructure and transport systems, data collection methods, health safety and environment, management |
| Topics: | Urban Studies, Project Management, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Digital Applications, Human Resources, Education, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here