Undergraduate students’ attitudes and behaviour towards museum visits

The present research aims to study undergraduate students’ attitudes and behaviour towards museum visits. University students can be considered a potential important museum public. From museums they can get an informal education on several topics. The research sample consisted of about 500 undergraduate students from four different Faculties of the University of Rome: Education, Law, Literature, Engineering. A questionnaire with different questions formats (closed and open questions) was prepared. In addition to information regarding socio-demographic characteristics, three questions concerned visiting museums. Another part of the questionnaire had open questions regarding definition of a museum, motivation for visiting or not visiting museums, usefulness of visiting a museum and suggestions on how to increase museum visits by young peoples. Results showed that with regards to the question of museums or gallery visits during the last 12 months, 24,5% of the sample did not visit any museum. The explanations for not visiting museums was ascribed to lack of time, or interest; little information about exhibitions; the cost of the tickets and competing interests from other types of cultural activities like films and music shows. On the contrary motivation for visiting museums was due to arts interest. Engineering students preferred visiting science museums, while other students preferred modern and contemporary art museums. Interesting is that even those students who never went to a museum in the last 12 months are willing to make this experience more often, but they need help in acquiring more information, and of sharing this experience with a friend.