ABSTRACT The current environmental crisis calls upon all institutions and social forces to seek strategies to mitigate the damage that human activity inflicts on ecosystems around the planet. Environmental care and the protection of the environment have been enshrined in the San Salvador Protocol as one of the Human Rights and one of the growing responsibilities of universities, as the climate crisis has reached points of no return. The research that gave rise to this article aimed to explore the training interests and the most serious current problems that university education should focus on, from the perspective of first-semester students of social and human sciences from four Colombian universities. A quantitative, descriptive-explanatory methodological approach was used, from which a survey instrument was applied to a convenience sample. It was concluded that university institutions should emphasize the implementation of curricular spaces that promote teaching and learning about the environmental crisis, sustainable development, and the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, as well as the respect for Human Rights as one of their priorities.