Circular Economy Education Guidebook Launch

A ProSPER.Net joint research project focusing on CE education was developed and conducted through a collaboration between five universities: RMIT University (Australia), TERI School of Advanced Studies (India), Arabaev Kyrgyz State University (AKSU) (Kyrgyzstan), University of Peradeniya (UoP) (Sri Lanka), and Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) (Thailand), with visiting guest/advisor from the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. The education of CE concepts was undertaken at the five universities either as an independent course or integrated into sustainability-related courses.

The research outcomes highlighted a significant advancement in the understanding of the CE amongst teachers, learners/students. It is demonstrated through their ability to design or brainstorm CE models and develop strategical CE plan/s tailored to particular contexts that are aligned with their professional roles, experience, and backgrounds.

The webinar commenced with a welcome from the lead of the research project – Prof Usha Iyer-Raniga (RMIT University). This was followed by an introduction to the research project with a focus on the role of education in transitioning towards circularity. Experiences of educating CE at different universities were shared through the presentation of each university. A question and answer (Q&A) session was moderated with discussion between attendees and panelists by Dr. Jonghwi Park, Academic Programme Officer and Head of Innovation and Education at UNU-IAS. The webinar closed with highlights of key takeaways from the project lead and special guest Assoc Prof Subarna Sivapalan from University of Nottingham, Malaysia.

The highlight of this event was the launch of a Teaching and Learning Guidebook for circular economy in the built environment,  which can be accessed here (under the ‘Outputs’ tab).