PILOT STUDY OF STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN MEXICO: THE CASE OF THE ENGINEERING FACULTY AT UNACH

Promoting sustainability in universities requires assessments to generate medium-and long-term strategies.It is a challenge for researchers to find valid and reliable documents.The purpose of the research was to apply an instrument that defines the degree of attention university students pay to sustainability.A questionnaire with six categories-university education, university relations, socioeconomic links and impact, knowledge acquisition, application and social impact of sustainability, and evaluation of university sustainability-corresponding to 27 items, was administered to a pilot group of 351 undergraduate students from five universities and 13 study programs.Due to the rural nature of the institutions, the questionnaire was administered on paper.Descriptive statistics were applied descriptive statistics and obtained Cronbach's alpha factor to determine the reliability of the responses.The questionnaire was found to have a consistency greater than 0.9.In the category of university education, teachers are required to generate proposals that include students in research.in the university relationship category, it is necessary to develop sustainable extramural activities; in the outreach category, projects are required to transfer technology to communities that include students; in the case of knowledge appropriation, students are concerned about sustainability in their communities, requiring changes in environmental management; in the social impact category, the environmental relationship with communities must be considered through sustainable projects; In terms of evaluation, it is necessary to provide institutional follow-up and promote infrastructure to implement sustainable social projects.It is concluded that it is necessary for university institutions to propose plans and programs aimed at a shift towards sustainability and to involve students in research projects to provide attention to vulnerable and marginalized communities.