THE IMPORTANCE OF GLOBAL ISSUES IN PREGRADUAL PREPARATION FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The aim of the study was to analyse the relevance of global issues among university students for their field of study. The research sample consisted of 581 students of Matej Bel University (Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations) in Banska Bystrica. For the data collection we used a scale questionnaire mapping the degree of importance of global issues among students in relation to their fields of study (Andreotti et al., 2013). Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyse its internal structure. The value of Cronbach's alpha per dimension ranged from 0.74 to 0.85. We identified a statistically significant difference in the relevance of global issues among students for their field in favour of human rights and economic-social development issues. We noticed a statistically significant difference in the relevance of the global issues in terms of student gender for their field of study in the human rights dimension for the benefit of the female students. The statistically significant difference in the relevance of global issues in terms of student discipline for their field was confirmed in the dimensions of economic-political and economic-social development in favour of non-pedagogical students and in the human rights dimension in favour of students with pedagogical disciplines. There was no statistically significant difference in the relevance of global issues in terms of students' degree courses for their field of study.