Program directors’ beliefs on implementing a mandatory sustainability course: A university-wide study

Background: Climate change poses significant risks to student well-being, yet sustainability education remains limited in higher education curricula. University program directors play a key role in providing sustainability education. This research examined program directors’ beliefs about having a mandatory sustainability course and identified key drivers and barriers to inform intervention strategies aimed at increasing their intention to have such a course.

Focus of the Article: This research used the Reasoned Action Approach to understand what motivates program directors to have a mandatory sustainability course in their programs.

Research Question: What beliefs underlie the intention of university program directors to have a mandatory course on sustainability in their program, and which beliefs are most influential in shaping this intention?

Importance to the Social Marketing Field: This research contributes to social marketing by applying the Reasoned Action Approach to inform the development of interventions to promote sustainability education. The findings provide actionable insights into belief-based strategies that can be linked to social marketing principles for motivating university program directors to have a mandatory sustainability course.

Methods: The research used a mixed-methods approach with two studies. Study 1 used a semi-structured belief elicitation procedure with open-ended questions to identify program directors’ beliefs. In Study 2, the most salient beliefs were transformed into closed-ended questions to quantitatively assess their strength and valuation to determine which beliefs drive program directors’ intention to have such a course.

Results: The results revealed several behavioral beliefs (e.g., “With a sustainability course I can encourage students to think independently and critically”), key referent groups (e.g., advisory boards, teachers, students), and control beliefs (e.g., “Knowing how to ensure program alignment”) as key candidates to target in interventions aimed at increasing program directors’ intention. Such interventions are needed to increase the supply of sustainability education in higher education, as program directors sampled in our research reported a weak intention to have a mandatory sustainability course.

Recommendations for Research or Practice: The findings allow for the development of various social marketing-based intervention initiatives aimed at strengthening the intention of university program directors to have a mandatory sustainability course. Interventions should, for example, target key behavioral beliefs, reinforce normative pressure from advisory boards, teachers, and students, and address control beliefs by, for example, demonstrating how to ensure that a sustainability course fits the program end-terms.