Higher education and sustainability: a study about perception of the campus Alto Paraopeba's actors / UFSP / MG

Abstract

The decade from 2005 to 2014 was established as the Decade of Education for the United Nations for Sustainable Development, because education, including higher education, has an important role in the scenario of mobilization for cultural change. The scope of this study is to evaluate the perception of the actors of a university campus, Campus Auto Paraopeba (CAP), of the Federal University of São João del Rei (UFSJ), in relation to sustainable development. For this, a structured questionnaire was administered to students and technical administrative personnel. Such instrument assisted to determine the values and the behaviors of the academic community, considering the main dimensions of sustainable development. The means of perception of PAC’s social actors in relation to each of the studied dimensions (environmental, economic and social) were relatively high, with a balance between the means. However, the higher mean was related to the environmental dimension. Thus, besides of raising in these actors a reflection on their own values and behavior, this research serve as reference for future pedagogical and/or administrative decisions that promote sustainable development in the campus under study.