Proceedings of World Business, Finance and Management Conference
14 - 15 December 2015, Rendezvous Grand Hotel, Auckland, New Zealand
ISBN: 978-1-922069-91-7
Investigating International Tertiary Students Perceptions
towards Sustainability in New Zealand Regarding Age,
Religion and Nationality
Bernhardett Theron*, Andries J du Plessis**, Jimmy Chen*** and Anu
Sabarwal****
Sustainability refers to utilising the earth’s natural resources wisely to meet the
necessities of lives but also to save the resources for future generations to survive.
There are schools of thought that state that the ever increasing world population and
free trade policies have resulted in the exploitation of resources. This research
investigated the influence of age, religion and nationality on perceptions of
international students towards conservation and sustainable living at an international
tertiary institution, UUNZ, in Auckland New Zealand. A quantitative method was
applied; 92 questionnaires were distributed amongst international business students
who were the target population. The research aims to establish what international
students’ attitudes and perception towards sustainability and the environment are in a
foreign country and whether there are a correlation between age, nationality, religion
and their perceptions are towards sustainable living. Results, revealed a negative
correlation between students’ concern and perception towards sustainability and an
increase in age. Indicating that with an increase in age (age 40 and older), there are a
decrease in their concern regarding sustainable living. There are no significant
differences, (analysed by t-Tests) or correlations (analysed by ANOVA) in other areas
including nationality and religion. Recommendations are, amongst others, that tertiary
institutions should, perhaps, consider devoting at least one lecture session per course
of all tertiary students in order to create an awareness of their contribution towards
sustainability in the immediate, but also more distant future. This education is
especially relevant for the older students as it was revealed throughout the research
and literature that the majority of sustainability education focus on the youth.
Stream: Management
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* Bernhardett Theron, UUNZ, Auckland, New Zealand, Email: b.theron@uunz.ac.nz
** Dr Andries J du Plessis, UUNZ, Auckland, New Zealand, E-mail: aduplessis@unitec.ac.nz
*** Dr Jimmy Chen, UUNZ, Auckland, New Zealand, E-mail: jimmy@uunz.ac.nz
**** Anu Sabarwal, UUNZ, Auckland, New Zealand, Email: anusabarwal@yahoo.com