(59a) Students’ Perceptions on Sustainability in a Chemical Engineering Program

Chemical engineers are well-placed to significantly contribute to many on-going and novel sustainability endeavors in society, leveraging the discipline’s domain knowledge and skillsets. To that end, the undergraduate chemical engineering degree program needs to provide suitable learning opportunities to help students to acquire sufficient technical competencies, soft skills, and a sustainability mindset. The effective integration of sustainability into the chemical engineering curriculum raises multiple open questions that we as educators need to confront going forward. As part of an on-going curriculum review and transformation process at Imperial College London, a large-scale student survey (n=91) of all undergraduates (Year 1 – 4) was conducted to gauge students’ perceptions on current department and program practices and to solicit ideas for future transformations. In this presentation, we discuss both qualitative and quantitative results from the survey which help to shed light on students’ perspectives on sustainability and their educational experience. We also share some preliminary thoughts on areas for transformation and future work that are likely to be important in integrating sustainability into chemical engineering education.