SUSTAINABILITY ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOURS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON

Sustainability in higher education has been regarded as an important issue for success of universities and other institutions where students, once trained and qualified, will exercise their professions. The main goal of this study is use the Theory of Planned Behaviour to analyze sustainable attitudes and behaviours among students in higher education institutions across five countries: United States, Portugal, Cyprus, Serbia, and South Korea. The results suggest that individualism, masculinity, and power distance could be important dimensions to explain difference in attitude and behaviour of students concerning sustainable issues. Students in more individualistic and masculine societies will be more pro-active and assertive in their attitudes, decisions, and reactions towards sustainability. In universities located in societies that score high in power distance, professors and top managers should be very clear in establishing the rules about university courses and how to behave in classes and campus regarding sustainable issues.