Integration of environmental education into university teaching

Conclusions The European Seminar on the Integration of Environmental Concepts in University Teaching was a meeting characterised by rich discussion, innovative ideas, hard work and interesting personal contacts. Its goals will only be fulfilled if its results and conclusions will lead to innovative action and better protection of the earth's resources. The output of this conference must be a starting point for further discussion and research. This short paper cannot reflect all thoughts and conclusions that emerged in Brussels. The proceedings will be published in December 1989 and will be available from the Department for Human Ecology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel, Belgium.     

塑造大学精神,建设"高水平大学"

2004年教育工作将突出两大战略重点,其中大力加强高水平大学和重点学科建设,是适应全面建设小康社会的要求,促进高等教育和职业教育与经济社会发展的紧密结合.文章从实践"三个代表"的高度,提出建设"一流大学"或"高水平大学"必须特别注重塑造大学精神;并立足教书育人,结合实际工作探讨了解决问题的对策.     

Implementation of a zero waste program at a university campus

A zero waste program was established at a university campus in response to grassroots student concern over environmental management issues. The implementation procedure consisted of initial discussions with academic and local authority staff at a university environmental forum, the formation of a working group, the preparation of a funding proposal and the establishment of an externally funded research, educational and promotional program led by an academic staff member. Support from senior management existed in the form of a written environmental policy and a signed commitment to environmental responsibility in tertiary education and university funding support followed the success of the initial funding application. Projects were typically conducted by paid research associates, assisted by student volunteers and supervised by a program leader from the academic staff. Co-operation and support from facilities management staff was obtained on an informal basis. A campus environmental committee was established in order to facilitate communication on environmental matters between the School for the Environment, senior university management, facilities management staff, academic staff and students. In order to enable full program development however, a need for linkages between all sectors involved in the program and the introduction of a formal environmental management system was identified.     

Ensuring the service quality at a university construction technology laboratory in Brazil

Service quality in a construction technology laboratory can result in an improvement in construction companies’ competitiveness. This research aims to evaluate the service quality provided by a construction technology laboratory, specifically in the segment of performing testing through the rupturing of concrete samples. For this research, a survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire that was created based on a literature review regarding the surveying of laboratory customers at a university in the south of Brazil. Our research was both exploratory and quantitative, and the data were analyzed by applying multivariate data analysis. The conclusions of this study show that the dimensions of quality services are: communication, reliability, responsiveness, credibility, and tangibility. These five dimensions together provide a high explained variance standard of 79.75%. Having a suitable number of attendants available to serve customers and presenting agility in the construction laboratory is one of the managerial research contributions. Moreover, through information availability, this research generates greater traceability that can be used both by customers and by institutional management. Constantly and thoroughly monitoring the customer service cycle is another relevant factor that can improve the quality of the services provided.     

谈高校学生非正式群体的教育和引导

随着高等教育改革的推进,高校中非正式群体的作用越来越大,如果忽视了对这一群体的教育和引导,势必会造成教育工作中阵地的缺失。对此本文提出了把加强正式群体建设与重视保护非正式群体的积极作用相结合、把群体需要与满足个人的需要结合起来、把党团建设与社团建设相结合三种教育对策     

Crime and vandalism in university residence halls: A confirmation of defensible space theory

University residence halls with good defensible space were found to have substantially lower crime and vandalism than residence halls with poor defensible space characteristics.     

Towards greening a university campus: The case of the University of Maribor, Slovenia

The environmental performance of the University of Maribor (Engineering Campus) has been assessed on a life cycle basis. The following activities have been considered in the study: the use and operation of lecture theatres (construction and maintenance, heating, lighting and water consumption) and day-to-day consumption of sundries (paper and plastic bottles). The results indicate that the heating and construction of buildings are the ‘hot spots’ in the system, for most environmental impacts. Different waste management options for the plastic and paper, including recycling, incineration and landfill, have also been compared for environmental impacts and economic costs. The option combining 70% recycling, 29% incineration and 1% landfill has been found to be most economically and environmentally sustainable.     

Place attachment and place identity: First-year undergraduates making the transition from home to university

This paper examines the issues emanating from the transition into a new social and cultural environment distant from the home, the context of which is provided by the transition from home to university. The study analyses the transitional process over a period of 5 months, using data obtained from in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation of ten first-year undergraduates who moved to study at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham. It explores the mediating variables that impact place attachment and place identity during the transition from home to university. Within this context consideration is given to how participants made sense of changes in their socio-spatial environment, the ensuing problems and challenges of doing so, and how these meanings affected self-perceptions and self-evaluations. The analysis demonstrates how participant's stories of the transition evince an abiding concern with the loss of place, manifest in terms of an erosion of a sense of belonging, attachment and continuity and an undermining of home's capacity to symbolise the self. The implications of such accounts for our understanding of place attachment and identity are then explored. The paper concludes by advocating a holistic approach to our conceptualisation of place, given that place meanings are constantly being evaluated and redefined in light of changing social and physical relationships with place and between people and place.     

An analysis of university sustainability reports from the GRI database: an examination of influential variables

In the business context, many papers have examined whether certain variables can affect sustainability disclosure practices. However, research on universities has mainly been addressed to explore the extent of sustainability information reported with little focus on determining the factors that may affect it. This paper analyzes the influence exerted by some variables concerning the extent of information reported in the university sustainability reports included in this study. To accomplish this task, data were collected using a content analysis of the university sustainability reports extracted from the GRI sustainability disclosure database. The findings reveal that sustainability disclosure practices by universities are explained by different factors, among which are institutionalization, geographical region, external assurance and leadership. Such results are supported jointly by the underpinnings of the institutional and legitimacy theories in response to coercive and mimetic pressures and by the need to improve reputation in society.     

Assessment of the degree of rancidity on reused oils in university cafeterias,and public awareness

In this study, reused sunflower cooking oil was investigated for rancidity. Three student cafeterias at the University of Dodoma (UDOM) were used for this particular study. Oil samples were analyzed at the University of Dodoma laboratories. Results showed that all parameters were beyond permissible limits by WHO/FAO standards. Acid values ranged between 0.841 and 4.319 mg KOH/g oil, which is beyond the allowable limits by WHO/FAO (0.6 mg KOH/g oil). Peroxide values were found to be 19.5 mill eq O₂/kg oil (minimum), and 62 mill eq O₂/kg oil (maximum), which are both above the recommended limits by WHO/FAO (10 mill eq O₂/kg oil). Iodine values were found to be from 102.87 to 48.26-g I₂/100 g oil, and were all beyond the recommended limits by WHO/FAO, of between 118- and 141-g I₂/100 g oil. The study has further revealed that the number of customers that are saved by the three cafeterias exceeds the capacity of the cafeterias. This study also found out that many students (almost 74%) are not aware on general knowledge about rancidity, including health effects of using rancid oils. It is therefore recommended to the national regulatory authorities to formulate strict regulations to guide and control oil rancidity.     

College and university environmental programs as a policy problem (part 2): strategies for improvement

Environmental studies and environmental sciences programs in American and Canadian colleges and universities seek to ameliorate environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. In a companion article (Part 1) we describe the environmental program movement (EPM) and discuss factors that have hindered its performance. Here, we complete our analysis by proposing strategies for improvement. We recommend that environmental programs re-organize around three principles. First, adopt as an overriding goal the concept of human dignity??defined as freedom and social justice in healthy, sustainable environments. This clear higher-order goal captures the human and environmental aspirations of the EPM and would provide a more coherent direction for the efforts of diverse participants. Second, employ an explicit, genuinely interdisciplinary analytical framework that facilitates the use of multiple methods to investigate and address environmental and social problems in context. Third, develop educational programs and applied experiences that provide students with the technical knowledge, powers of observation, critical thinking skills and management acumen required for them to become effective professionals and leaders. Organizing around these three principles would build unity in the EPM while at the same time capitalizing on the strengths of the many disciplines and diverse local conditions involved.