Factors Influencing Sustainable Development Literacy among Engineering Undergraduates in China: Based on the College Impact Model

Shuyu Qi; Danning Huang; Qiutong Ma; Mi Zhou

doi:10.3390/ijerph20021249

Factors Influencing Sustainable Development Literacy among Engineering Undergraduates in China: Based on the College Impact Model

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 10;20(2):1249. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021249.

Authors

Shuyu Qi¹, Danning Huang¹, Qiutong Ma¹, Mi Zhou¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Higher Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, The Capital Research and Development Center for Engineering Education, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.

Abstract

Achieving carbon neutrality is a major strategy to combat climate change and achieve sustainable development. Training engineering undergraduates with sustainable development literacy is an important way to achieve this goal in the field of higher education. Based on the college impact model, this research surveyed 1070 engineering undergraduates in Chinese universities to explore the influence of institutional support on undergraduates' sustainable development literacy, and the empirical analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that institutional support positively and significantly influenced the sustainability development literacy of engineering undergraduates, and student engagement had a mediating role in the relationship between institutional support and sustainability development literacy. Relevant recommendations for cultivating engineering undergraduates with high-level sustainability development literacy are proposed here.

Keywords: engineering education; institutional support; student engagement; sustainable development literacy.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Humans
Literacy*
Students
Sustainable Development*
Universities

Grants and funding

Funding was provided by the National Social Science Fund Youth Project Study on the Evaluation of Undergraduate Engineering Practice Competencies in China in the Context of the Washington Accord (Funding number: CIA190275; Funder: National Office for Education Sciences Planning).