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AbstractOne of the most critical issues in many applications of fuzzy sets is the successful evaluation of membership values. A method based on pairwise comparisons provides an interesting way of evaluating membership values. That method was proposed by Saaty, almost 20 years ago, and since then has captured the interest of many researchers around the world. However, recent investigations reveal that the original scale may cause severe inconsistencies in many decision‐making problems. Furthermore, exponential scales seem to be more natural for humans to use in many decision‐making problems. In this paper two evaluative criteria are used to examine a total of 78 scales which can be derived from two widely used scales. The findings in this paper reveal that there is no single scale that can outperform all the other scales. Furthermore, the same findings indicate that a few scales are very efficient under certain conditions. Therefore, for a successful application of a pairwise‐comparison‐based method the appropriate scale needs to be selected and applied.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to respond to calls for higher education institutions to address sustainability within the curriculum. Institutions that aim to graduate citizens with prescribed attributes relevant to sustainability may need to develop teaching and learning support‐programmes appropriate to the varied nature of students' worldviews.Design/methodology/approachThe research described here used the NEP (Revised New Ecological Paradigm) and statistical cluster‐analysis to explore if individuals within cohorts of students could reasonably be clustered into subgroups with identified sustainability attributes relevant to the design of learner‐support programmes.FindingsAll seven programme cohorts in one institution's annual intake clustered into three subgroups with identifiable attributes.Practical implicationsThe results are discussed in relation to how post‐compulsory education institutions can define the sustainability characteristics of their students and to the pedagogic literature that addresses diversity in student groups.Originality/valueThe approach may help higher education institutions better understand the needs of individual students within large groups and to develop appropriate support programmes for students with similar attributes and needs.