EKTU is becoming a full-fledged participant of the global community in the field of circular economy realisation. Our university is a leader in promoting the ideas of sustainable development: in The Times Higher Education Impact rating EKTU is among the first thousand universities in the world that contribute to the sustainable development of society, in the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings VKTU takes position 100 in the world ranking and position 1 among Kazakhstani universities. Successfully implemented projects of technological entrepreneurship allowed to become a grantholder of the project "Development of innovative curricula and modules in circular economy and sustainable development", which is supported by the European programme Erasmus +.
The mission of EKTU in this project is to coordinate the work of universities in Central and Central Asia and to collaborate with European partners. The success of the project depends on effective management. To this end, Konurbaeva Zh.T. - Vice-Rector for Science and Innovation, Yusubalieva M.F. - SNA of the Research Office held a management session to discuss interim results of participants from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, received feedback from partners on their work packages, discussed risks.
On 22-23 April, the first face-to-face session of the European partners took place. The session took place in Germany. More than 20 colleagues from 12 universities and higher education organisations took part in the working meeting at FACHHOCHSCHULE DES MITTELSTANDS (FHM) - Germany.
First day of the meeting on 22 April 2024.
Melanie Eikenbusch and Marianne Gevorski from FHM presented an overview of educational programmes and projects in CE to support the circular economy.
The training participants took part in a workshop following the seminar by Dr Fabian Schoden, Hochschule Bielefeld "Circular Economy". Each partner presented its vision of mechanisms for implementing elements of green instruments, taking into account the national characteristics of each of the participants' countries.
The second day of the seminar on 23 April 2024 was also held in an active format. To demonstrate practical experience, colleagues organised a meeting with entrepreneurs who implement recycling in their production.
Speakers who presented their reports:
- Christina Schulte, Monika Pieper "EnergieImpuls OWL" - Creating regional CE transformations - experiences from the CirQuality OWL project, CirQualityOWL 2019 - 2022 - CIRQUALITY OWL PLUS;
- Métier Roklage - project overview From linear to circular;
- Anette Wolgast - Experiences and challenges of circular transformation;
- Monica Piper - Practical tools and tools for developing circularity;
- Armando Garcia Schmidt - The circular economy in Germany and EU rules;
- Melanie Eikenbusch - Creating first ideas and concepts with a design thinking approach.
Each speaker opened the topic in the context of sustainable development and circular economy in education and research. Colleagues spoke in detail about how to effectively organise coordination of scientific research, projects in cooperation with partners. The speakers spoke about the importance of choosing real projects according to the region's demands. Specific advice was given on the development of an action plan by the task force, on how the dialogue with the expert community should be carried out.
The speakers also talked about the competence model: how it is built, what competences are relevant today. A chain of sequential actions from identifying the problems of sustainable development and circular economy in education to their solution and implementation of specific products in practice was also built.
The question of how to organise project-oriented training and how to attract experts from business and production as lecturers was revealed.
The Workshop was a platform for each partner to present their vision of how to address the issue of circular economy implementation and education.
Leading such a large-scale Erasmus + project as "Development of innovative curricula and modules in circular economy and sustainable development" is a great responsibility, which confirms WCTU's leadership in innovation, education and our reputation in the international space. Such successes contribute to the promotion of sustainable practices in Kazakhstan and globally.
Successful further work in the implementation of the project!
