Aleixo, Ana MartaLeal, SusanaAzeiteiro, Ulisses2020-09-222020-09-222020Aleixo, A.M., Leal, S., & Azeitiero, U. (2020, September 15-16). Students’ perspectives on sustainable development goals in Portuguese higher education Institutions [Abstract]. ICP '20, International Workshop on Innovations in Cleaner Production, Cambridge, United Kingdom. https://iape-conference.com/icp20-accepted-papers-2/http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/5139In this paper, we present a research about the understanding of sustainable development (SD) among students of public higher education institutions, in Portugal. It explores the students’ perspectives about SD through the analysis of their attitudes, skills and experiences on the theme. Their knowledge about sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their opinion about the importance of SD as future professionals were also under consideration. The research design of the study follows a descriptive and exploratory approach with a quantitative reporting of results. It was used an on-line questionnaire, adapted from the National Union Students (2018), Chuvieco et al. (2018) and Dagiliūtė et al. (2018). A sample of 1257 students from the Portuguese public higher education institutions (HEIs) was obtained. In general, the results show that students have knowledge about environmental issues. Students study, at different degrees, subjects related to SD and SDGs, however participation and involvement is lacking. It is urgent to introduce SD education in all curricula. In addition, most students already have heard about SDGs and know what they are, however, only a small number of students are actively involved in activities organized by their HEIs. Students also consider that secondary education was the educational path that most encouraged to think and act in ways that help the environment and people. Students consider that HEIs can do more in terms of education for SD. From a global perspective, this study corroborate the three previous studies, namely the factors associated to more pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours are still poorly understood. This research has a national scope and the results should be interpreted only in the Portuguese context. Future studies should include a larger range of institutional actors within the faculty. The study helps to better understand the students’ perceptions about SD and the role of HEIs to improve it, namely in Portugal where the studies about the theme are scarce. The results could be used by HEIs to introduce the SD topics in formal and informal education, as well as to improve it integration on campus activities.engPortugalSustainable development goalsStudents of higher education's intitutionsStudent perceptionsconference object