Circular Economy (Taught)

This interdisciplinary programme prepares you to drive the transition towards a circular economy, giving you the tools to support communities, businesses, and policymakers to create a more sustainable and equitable future.

The MSc Circular Economy explores a bold alternative vision to today’s wasteful, linear model where resources are extracted, manufactured, used, and discarded. In a circular economy, systems are designed to keep products and materials circulating at their highest value for as long as possible, prompting us to rethink how we consume and use goods and services, both locally and globally.

The circular economy vision presents opportunities for creative thinking, critical research and vital action on urgent global challenges, including the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and social inequality.

Core courses focus on practical and theoretical approaches helping you to:

• understand the principles and frameworks of a circular economy

• design products, services, and systems for circularity

• explore circular innovations in business and organisational contexts

• critically evaluate emerging research and global practices in the field

• identify interventions supporting sustainable transformations of global and local systems.

You will be able to shape your learning through option courses and an independent final project, allowing you to pursue your own circular economy interests. The programme encourages you to think critically about finite global resources in the context of a changing world and to act as an agent of change.

See the University of Edinburgh website for detailed programme information.