Attitudes of Sultan Qaboos University Students towards Some Environmental Problems and their Willingness to Take Action to Reduce them

Abstract

Problem statement: Our earth suffers from many environmental problems which need to be tackled at the individual level, requiring individuals to develop those attitudes which will guide them to environmentally supportive behavior. The objectives of this study were to investigate (i) the attitudes of Sultan Qaboos University students to some environmental problems, (ii) their willingness to take action to ameliorate these problems, (iii) the effect of students’ gender and college of study on their attitudes and (iiii) to examine the relationship between students’ attitudes and their willingness to take action to reduce these problems. Approach: Data were collected from 317 students from five different faculties. The data were collected by using a questionnaire containing 48 items distributed over 5 dimensions: Energy, water, air pollution, waste and desertification. Validity and reliability were examined. Results: The results showed generally that the students hold positive attitudes towards the issues raised and that female students showed more positive attitudes than males. The results indicated that students’ attitudes towards environmental problems did not appear to be influenced by the university faculties in which they are studying, except in the case of energy, where significant differences were observed between the attitudes of students from the faculty of Education and the faculty of Agriculture, the former showing more positive attitudes than the latter. The results showed that students were willing to take action to reduce environmental problems; this was not affected by gender or faculty. Conclusion: The findings suggested the necessity to develop students’ attitudes and willingness to take responsibility to reduce these problems.