Synthetic indexes to measure university student social responsibility

Abstract

Social responsibility is based on the capacity to decide one’s own actions consciously, deliberately, freely and in relation with others. Each generation must take responsibility for their actions and the impact these have on sustainable development. To analyse and measure this aspect is of signal importance in advancing the Institutional Policy in Higher Education as proposed by UNESCO. The aim of the present study is to offer the international university community a synthetic indicator (index) to evaluate the social responsibility of university students which provides, based on only 6 or 8 indicators, an effective assessment of University Student Social Responsibility (USSR) at any moment during their academic career. The results of the instrument are sufficiently reliable and valid, similar to those obtained by the initial instrument using 20 indicators. The reliability, homogeneity and predictive capacity of these indexes were tested on samples of second and fourth year university students from a number of faculties. The results show these indexes are effective, offering results similar to the complete instrument.