A descriptive cross-disciplinary study on social responsibility in university students

Abstract This descriptive cross-sectional study explores the levels and dimensions of University Social Responsibility (USR) as perceived by undergraduate students across different academic disciplines at the University of Extremadura. A total of 121 students from diverse fields participated by completing the University Student Social Responsibility questionnaire (RSEU), a validated multidimensional instrument. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify patterns based on gender and fields of study. The results indicate that most students perceived a medium to high level of social responsibility, with Health Sciences students scoring significantly higher in key dimensions such as personal exploration of values, responsibility development during university training, and professional commitment to the common good. No significant gender differences were observed in the overall RSEU score, although some variations were found in specific items. These findings offer relevant insights into the implementation of USR as a cross-cutting institutional strategy and suggest the value of providing opportunities to strengthen social responsibility across academic disciplines, particularly in non-Health disciplines.