A Preliminary Assessment for the Environmental Awareness of the Universities' Students in Gaza strip- Palestine

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of the preliminary study, focusing on assessing the level of university students" environmental awareness in Gaza Strip the southern part of the Palestine, and if there are any differences in the level of their environmental awareness according to socio-demographic factors such as gender, place of residence, university and academic level of the study subjects. A cross sectional study was carried out within four universities in the Gaza Strip. A total of 773 university students were surveyed in this study from all of the four academic years. In general, the results disclosed that that the level of environmental awareness among the university students in Gaza Strip was relatively moderate (64.12%). There was a variation among the study population in the level of awareness related to socio-demographic factors. In reference to gender variable, it reveals that the level of environmental awareness among females (66.5%) was higher than of males (59.5%). Also, the findings demonstrate higher level of environmental awareness among students of science specialization (66.35%) than universities students with literature specialization (62.78%). There was a statistical significant difference in the level of environmental awareness among the students according to their university; and their place of residence. Whereas there was no significance differences in their environmental awareness level according to their academic level. Finally, the researchers conclude this paper with the following recommendation that environmental study should be included in college curriculum and should be taught all students irrespective of their gender or the type of discipline.