The Impact of Environmental Literacy on Environmental University Culture Perception

The Case of Industrial Engineering Administrator at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of the learning unit (UA) "Environment and Sustainability" on the perception of the university’s environmental culture using the Industrial Engineering Administrator (IIA) students of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL) as a case study. For this purpose, we developed a survey with a representative stratified statistical design by gender and semesters of the IIA career, with an exploratory-descriptive nature, and with a quantitative-qualitative approach. The final sample is 620 students, 313 men, and 307 women, chosen at random from the objective population. The questionnaire comprises more than 100 items organized into 40 questions with information on the student's context, socioeconomic dimensions, as well as on their recycling consumption, and their perception of environmental culture. The results show there is homogeneity in the response of a high percentage of questions between students who have attended the UA and those who have not. However, there is statistical evidence that shows that having taken the UA makes students stricter in their evaluation and perception of the environmental culture within the Faculty, significantly reducing the positive evaluation and increasing its negative evaluation. These results are robust for two types of econometric models considered in the present study.