Abstract

Genetic engineering and biotechnology made possible of gene transfer without discriminating microorganism, plant, animal or human. However, although these scientific techniques have benefits, they cause arguments because of their ethical and social impacts. The arguments about ethical ad social impacts of biotechnology made clear that not only getting basic knowledge about biotechnology and genetic engineering, also ethical and social issues must be thought in the schools, because the level of knowledge and the attitudes of new generation is very important for the society. So, in this study it is tried to determine the university students’, level of knowledge about genetic engineering and their attitude towards genetic engineering applications. For determining the students’ level of knowledge and attitude about genetic engineering, a questionnaire, which include 2 open ended questions and Likert type attitude scale with 12 statements, is given to students and wanted to answer. Answers of the open ended questions in the questionnaire are subjected to content analysis and students’ level of knowledge about this field is tried to determine. The statements in attitude scale with 12 subject is grouped under 3 titles; and to evaluate the answers to the statements in attitude scale, percentage values and group differentiations are calculated by SPSS. The results have shown that students do not have sufficient knowledge about basic principles of genetic engineering and their attitudes towards the applications change according to species of organisms and the objective of the study.