The role of education on the enhancement of heritage awareness and sustainability of the built environment; learning from experts and students

Presented the 2nd International Conference on Environmental Design, ICED2021 on the 23.10.2021, the paper discussed the outcomes of Intellectual Output 2 (IO2) of the HERSUS research project. The scope of the survey of IO2 was to create an argumentative and critically analyzed report on the state of learning of sustainability and heritage in higher education. The study is based on the dissemination of two online questionnaires within the five HERSUS participating countries (Serbia, Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Spain). The first questionnaire addressed experts in the fields of cultural heritage conservation and sustainable environmental design, occupied in academia, public administration, NGOs and the private sector. The second directed queries to students at master level studies, PhD researchers and recent alumni from academic institutions, in the five participating countries, regarding their experience from their study programs, their expectations and future prospects in the professional environment. The survey analysis was conducted independently for each country and comparisons derived from the review of the international summed outcome. The results of the survey conducted in Greece, were discussed in the paper, reflecting the views of 10 experts and 120 students. The analysis revealed comparable results among responses, with similarity and variation between the views of experts and students. Common ground between the two groups of respondents was found for the establishment of further links between academic education and professional practice, interdisciplinarity in education, and the need for a more systematic correlation between concepts of sustainability and heritage.