Environmental meso-economics in university curriculum: new master program in environmental technology and management

Abstract

A new Master Program in environmental technology and management has been developed in the framework of the Swiss-Jordanian cooperation, to ensure sustainable knowledge transfer in environmental management, technology, and economics. The areas represented in this program are cleaner production, hazardous substances management, and meso-economic analysis. All of these areas are under the theme of integrated resources management. The program implementation is carried out at Princess Sumaya University for Technology PSUT through cooperation with universities and environmental organizations in Switzerland, which was started in February 2008. The need for establishing this program in Jordan emerged from the practical experience of the Swiss partners who are working in environmental management. It was found that the concept of integrated resources management and the efficient utilization of resources were under estimated by practitioners. This leads to the urge of establishing a comprehensive program to upgrade the capacity of practitioners and new graduates to be able to handle environmental resources in a sustainable manner. For this purpose, the program includes and promotes the use of a number of tools. Meso-economic analysis is introduced in the program as a suitable tool to reflect the environmental values in monetary perspective, and to fill the gap at a meso (sector level) between the traditional micro (enterprise level) and macro (country level). Thus, meso-analysis comes out with integrated picture about the whole country’s sector and its related environmental damage and remediation options.