University education is expected to prepare graduates not only for employment, but also for the social and ethical responsibilities that accompany professional life. New research from Spain suggests that students in different academic fields may not experience this dimension of higher education in the same way.
A peer-reviewed study of 121 undergraduate students at the University of Extremadura found that Health Sciences students reported significantly stronger social responsibility on several measures than students studying outside the health disciplines. The largest differences appeared in questions about professional commitment to the common good, personal values and the role of university education in developing social responsibility.
The findings do not establish that studying Health Sciences causes stronger social responsibility. The study was cross-sectional, relied on self-reported perceptions and included substantially more Health Sciences students than students from other fields. However, the results provide evidence that social responsibility may be experienced differently across university disciplines and highlight potential opportunities for higher education curricula.
Measuring social responsibility at university
Researchers Sabina Barrios-Fernandez and colleagues examined University Social Responsibility, a concept that extends the role of universities beyond teaching and research to include ethical engagement, equity, sustainability and contribution to society.
The study was published in Tertiary Education and Management on 24 September 2026. It focused on undergraduate students at the University of Extremadura in Spain and compared perceptions across academic disciplines as well as gender groups.
The researchers used the University Student Social Responsibility Questionnaire, known as the RSEU. The instrument contains 21 items and assesses dimensions including commitment to others and the surrounding community, personal discovery of values, education in social responsibility, and approaching future professional work from a position of social commitment.
How the study was conducted
The cross-sectional study included 121 undergraduate students enrolled during the 2021 to 2022 academic year. Data were collected between April and July 2022 using an anonymous online questionnaire distributed through university virtual classrooms.
The sample included 90 women, 29 men and two non-binary participants. The median age was 21 years. Eighty-four students were enrolled in Health Sciences programmes, while 37 were in non-Health Sciences fields. The latter group included 28 Social Sciences students, one Economics student and eight Engineering and Architecture students.
The RSEU used a six-point response scale. Reliability was high in this sample, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.947 for the overall scale. The four dimensions also showed strong internal consistency, with alpha values ranging from 0.852 to 0.907.
The researchers used non-parametric statistical tests to examine differences by gender and academic field. Because 21 individual questionnaire items were compared, they applied a Bonferroni correction and used a stricter significance threshold of p below 0.002 for the item-level comparisons. Multiple linear regression models were then used for items that differed significantly by field of study, adjusting for age, gender and academic year.
Most students rated their social responsibility positively
Across the full sample, responses generally indicated medium to high perceived social responsibility. Half of the participants described their personal commitment to improving their environment as high, 47% described it as medium and 3% described it as low.
Students were less uniformly positive about whether their university prepared them to be socially responsible. Thirty-six percent answered yes, 41% indicated that it did so to some extent, and 23% answered no.
These results suggest that students could perceive themselves as socially committed while holding more mixed views about the university’s contribution to developing that commitment.
Health Sciences students scored higher on several measures
The clearest differences emerged when Health Sciences students were compared with students from other fields. Health Sciences students scored significantly higher on multiple items within the dimensions covering personal discovery of values, education in social responsibility and socially committed professional practice.
For example, Health Sciences students more strongly endorsed the view that social commitment depends on recognising and respecting the dignity of every person. The median score was 6 among Health Sciences students compared with 5 among non-Health Sciences students. The difference was statistically significant at p below 0.001, with a rank-biserial correlation of 0.374.
Health Sciences students also more strongly agreed that personal change is a necessary step before changing the surrounding reality. Again, the median scores were 6 and 5 respectively, with p equal to 0.002 and a rank-biserial correlation of 0.333.
The largest differences involved future professional responsibility
All five items in the questionnaire’s professional social commitment dimension differed significantly between Health Sciences and non-Health Sciences students after correction for multiple comparisons.
The largest effect concerned approaching one’s future profession with a service vocation directed towards the common good. The difference had a rank-biserial correlation of 0.521 and a probability value below 0.001.
Another comparatively large difference concerned the belief that personal fulfilment and happiness depend partly on being a professional committed to the continuous improvement of society. This comparison produced a rank-biserial correlation of 0.471 and was also statistically significant at p below 0.001.
Health Sciences students were additionally more likely to agree that social responsibility is a competence that universities should actively develop. That item produced a rank-biserial correlation of 0.418 and p below 0.001.
Overall self-assessment was more similar than individual responses
Despite the differences across specific questionnaire items, the groups did not differ significantly on the final overall question asking students to evaluate how socially responsible and committed they felt at that moment. The probability value was 0.200, with a rank-biserial correlation of 0.140.
This distinction is important. The findings do not simply indicate that one group considered itself globally more responsible. Instead, the differences were concentrated in particular values and professional orientations measured by the questionnaire.
Gender differences were limited
The researchers found little evidence of broad gender differences in social responsibility. Most questionnaire items did not differ significantly between male, female and non-binary participants.
One item showed a nominal difference involving reflection on the importance of not remaining indifferent to what happens to other people. However, the study’s overall results did not support a substantial gender divide in perceived social responsibility.
Why academic discipline may matter
The researchers suggest that the stronger scores among Health Sciences students may partly reflect the educational context of health professions. Care, ethical responsibility, community engagement and responsibility towards other people are often explicit components of health-related training and professional identity.
That interpretation remains a hypothesis rather than a causal finding. Students who choose Health Sciences may already differ from other students in their values or motivations before entering university. Differences in course content, practical training, demographic composition and other unmeasured characteristics could also contribute.
Nevertheless, the pattern raises a practical question for universities: whether social responsibility, ethical reflection and the societal implications of professional work should be made more explicit across disciplines where these themes may receive less curricular attention.
Implications for higher education
The authors argue that University Social Responsibility can be treated as a cross-cutting educational objective rather than as a separate institutional activity. Potential approaches include integrating social responsibility into existing modules, using service-learning opportunities, encouraging reflection on the social consequences of professional decisions and creating stronger links between students and community needs.
The results are particularly relevant because professional decisions in fields such as business, engineering, technology and the social sciences can have substantial consequences for communities. Developing an explicit understanding of social responsibility therefore need not be confined to occupations traditionally associated with care.
However, the study did not test any educational intervention. It cannot show that adding social responsibility content to a curriculum would change students’ attitudes, nor can it determine which teaching approaches would be most effective.
Important limitations
The sample was relatively small and came from a single Spanish university, which limits the extent to which the results can be generalised to other institutions or countries. The academic groups were also uneven. There were 84 Health Sciences students but only 37 students from all non-Health fields combined, and some disciplines were represented by very few participants.
The cross-sectional design prevents causal conclusions. The study measured students at one point in time, so it cannot determine whether university training changed their social responsibility or whether students entered different programmes with pre-existing differences.
Social responsibility was self-reported. Responses may therefore be affected by social desirability, individual interpretation of questionnaire items and differences between how participants view themselves and how they behave in practice.
The researchers also collected the data in 2022, although the study was published in 2026. Future multi-institutional and longitudinal research would help establish whether the patterns persist across universities and whether students’ social responsibility changes during their degree programmes.
What the study adds
The study provides a detailed comparison of how students in different academic areas perceive social responsibility and their future professional obligations. Its strongest pattern was not a broad difference in overall self-rated responsibility, but a series of specific differences involving values, university training and commitment to the common good.
For universities, the findings offer a basis for examining whether ethical and societal responsibilities are embedded equally across programmes. Larger longitudinal studies could test whether differences emerge during university education and whether specific teaching practices can strengthen socially responsible professional identities across disciplines.
Source Information
Study: A descriptive cross-disciplinary study on social responsibility in university students
Authors: Sabina Barrios-Fernandez, Sara Chimento-Díaz, Ángel Denche-Zamorano, María Alcalá-Cerrillo, José Carmelo Adsuar and Diana Salas-Gómez
Journal: Tertiary Education and Management
Published: 24 September 2026
DOI: 10.1007/s11233-026-09183-y
Study design: Descriptive cross-sectional study
Sample: 121 undergraduate students at the University of Extremadura, Spain
