Majority of UK Students: Sustainability Not Promoted at My University

Only one in four UK students have agreed their university actively promotes sustainability on campus, according to the NatWest Student Living Index 2020 which was released on Monday.  

Of the 2,806 UK university students surveyed in June this year, only six percent believed that their university is extremely committed to promoting sustainability measures on campus.

Nottingham leads the way in promoting sustainability

Nottingham is the highest performing city when it comes to promoting sustainability, according to the survey.

Of the students studying in Nottingham, 50 percent agreed their university is committed to promoting sustainability. This includes both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.

Poole is the next best, with  40 percent of its students believing the city actively promotes sustainability, followed by York at 39 percent.

On the other end of the scale, only 10 percent of Belfast’s students said they feel their university is committed to sustainability. This falls to only six percent for students in Durham.

Cambridge outperforms Oxford

The Oxbridge sustainability gap is also worth noting, with these top schools performing significantly lower than other universities in the UK.

Of the two, Cambridge comes out on top. Just under a third (30 percent) of students at Cambridge said they believe their university actively promotes sustainability.

In comparison, only 13 percent of Oxford students said their university is committed to sustainability. This places the city in the bottom seven in the UK for sustainability.   

London falling behind in promoting sustainability  

Surprisingly, only 19 percent of students in London said that sustainability is actively promoted at their university, despite London being one of the most heavily polluted cities in the UK.

Although London scores below the UK average of 19 percent, these figures see London beating cities like Portsmouth, Canterbury and Coventry, where only 13 percent of students believed their universities are actively promoting sustainability on campus.

This survey shows there is still a lot more work to be done when it comes to making universities more sustainable. Here’s how universities are helping to look after the environment.