The University of Helsinki and the University of Tampere are launching this autumn a new joint cross-disciplinary online course, a MOOC, for change managers for sustainable development in the circular economy. Its purpose is to train students to be change managers who know how to tackle global sustainability challenges and make complex societies more sustainable.
“The course will discuss climate change mitigation and the sustainable use of natural resources. The circular economy provides solutions to both of these challenges, and students will learn to apply them in organisations,” says Laura Riuttanen from the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) and responsible for the course at the University of Helsinki.
The five-credit course ‘Leadership for sustainable change’ will feature video lectures, assignments as well as a project in which the student must plan and implement a concrete change project.
“This is a kind of course I would have liked to take during my studies. It’s not enough that we only study reasons for global problems, we also need to try to solve them,” she says.
The online MOOC is also directly applicable for employed professionals, for example, as continuing education through the Open University.
It is carried out jointly by the University of Helsinki’s units in atmospheric, sustainability and behavioural sciences, the University of Tampere’s Faculty of Management as well as the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The course is one of the projects to bring circular economy teaching to all levels of education, funded by Sitra.
This is the first time such a course is being offered in Finnish institutions of higher education.
Leadership for sustainable change’ course will open at the University of Helsinki MOOC platform on 4.9.2018.
Read more: Leadership for sustainable change
Follow the course on Twitter: #LeadForSust
More to come on circular economy
A new MOOC on circular economy will also come in the end of this year both in English and in Finnish at the University of Helsinki MOOC platform. The concept is similar to that of the MOOC called Climate.now which you can complete independently or as part of your higher education studies. Climate.now will also be taught as part of University of Helsinki as well as Open university curriculum this autumn.
Climate.now is found in the University of Helsinki Weboodi with the course code ATM302.
Registration to the Open university course
For more information:
Laura Riuttanen, University of Helsinki, +358 50 415 4746, laura.riuttanen@helsinki.fi
Anni Kangas, University of Tampere, Faculty of Management, +358 50 318 6032, anni.kangas@uta.fi