Students can enroll in a new Bachelor’s degree program, or choose between two Master’s degree programs, starting in the Winter Semester 2023/2024. Industrial partners and the local business community welcome the change in the JKU’s revised programs.

A floating plastic continent in the world's oceans. Microplastics in our food and our bodies. Current and future challenges require engineers who can take a critical look at plastics and develop revolutionary approaches to address them. This is why JKU is re-thinking polymer technologies: How can we create environmentally friendly material systems? Sustainable, environmentally-friendly, high-performance bioplastics? Beginning in the Winter Semester 2023/2024, newly enrolled polymer engineering students at the JKU will begin to address these questions and more.

Sustainability, a Circular Economy, and Digitalization
The three academic degree programs in polymer engineering technologies feature new focal points and a revised, revolutionary new curriculum. Throughout their studies, students are introduced to sustainability, a circular economy, and recycling, and are expected to examine these topics from a variety of perspectives, such as materials and process technology, digitalization, recycling technologies, and life cycle assessment. Students will also be expected to learn more about social contexts and social impact. The new degree programs consist of a modular structure, allowing students to choose future-oriented focal points. Elective courses include classes in digitalization for engineers. Classroom teaching includes state-of-the-art didactics and educational methods, combined with online learning and supported by Moodle. Graduates will be highly sought after in industry, academia, and other fields ranging from medicine and sports, to mobility, energy, and packaging.

Conveying Future Skills
JKU Rector Meinhard Lukas explains: "The new degree programs not only convey expertise in polymer engineering technologies, but also so-called 'future skills', meaning a skill set to be capable of successfully acting and interacting in ways that benefit the environment, humanity, society, the economy, and technology. As such, the program meets the demands and job profiles in our increasingly complex and uncertain world. Depending on the student’s specialization, graduates can become industrial or academic technical/scientific problem solvers, or address social challenges using (polymer) engineering approaches."

Gerald Berger-Weber, JKU professor of Polymer Processing and Digital Transformation, added: "Our educational format will be even more student-focused, skill-oriented, and include integral educational and learning methods, such as a so-called ‘flipped classroom’ , blended learning approaches, problem-based learning approaches, and acquiring special skill sets."

Industry and the University Join Forces
No other European region covers the entire value chain of the plastics industry in such a small area as in Upper Austria. In close cooperation with local companies, the JKU has been working for years to continually grow Upper Austria as a location of polymer technologies and polymer chemistry. One example is the JKU LIT Factory, a unique educational, learning, and research testing factory to support a circular economy and digitalization.

Partners in industry and the local business community welcome the JKU’s newly restructured degree programs in polymer engineering technologies:

Dr. Stefan Engleder, CEO, ENGEL Holding: "Plastic is a material of the future. When it comes to an environmentally conscious and healthy lifestyle, as well as protecting the climate, polymer materials play a key role. In order to tap into the potential, we need well-educated, dedicated people in the industry who are passionate about making plastics ready for the future. Recycling, a circular economy, digitalization, and energy efficiency are both challenges and solutions that require new technologies. At ENGEL, we invest close to €70 million annual in these types of developments. Graduates can look forward to long-term prospects and exciting professional opportunities at a leading international company as part of our development, application technology, or sales departments."

Manfred Hackl, CEO EREMA Group Ltd.: “One of the many challenges of our time includes managing plastic waste, and when it comes to creating solutions, a circular economy plays a key role. On one hand, and in regard to this still very new type of material, the plastics industry struggles with one of the greatest challenges in our history, especially as this topic has been neglected for so long. On the other hand, we now have an opportunity to actively shape change and become more climate neutral. Upper Austria, with its concentrated expertise in polymers, could blaze the trail, providing we get more young people excited about the subject area, educated in polymer technologies, and more excited about a circular economy and sustainability. The three new degree programs will contribute significantly to this idea. In order to establish more sustainable solutions for recyclable plastic products, we need these experts to conduct research and apply new approaches.”

Axel Kühner, CEO, Greiner AG: "As a global leader in the plastics industry, Greiner has a tremendous amount of responsibility; our partnership with the polymer engineering technologies programs at the JKU is also based on this shared sense of responsibility. Producing plastics in a resource-saving way and recycling them as part of a closed-loop economy ultimately requires in-depth expertise. That's why we here at Greiner are very pleased about the three new polymer engineering programs at the JKU. The curriculum features a technical understanding, social contexts, and concrete fields of application to learn how to sustainably shape our future. We have high hopes for new graduates who will play pivotal roles as we transition to more climate-neutral production processes."

DI Rudolf Wölfer, head of Circular Economy Solutions Innovation, Borealis: "Here at Borealis, research and education are deeply anchored our DNA. Our team needs smart minds able to apply creative and innovative approaches in polymers to transform the current linear and climate-damaging economic system. Together with the JKU, we feel it is important to continue advancing education in polymer engineering to train graduates, thereby taking important steps towards a functional climate-neutral circular economy."

Information about the three new programs

• Bachelor’s degree „Nachhaltige Kunststofftechnik & Kreislaufwirtschaft“ (beginning Winter Semester 2023/2024)
• Master’s degree “Plastics Management & Sustainability” (beginning Winter Semester 2024/2025)
• Master’s degree “Polymer Engineering & Science” (beginning Winter Semester 2024/2025)
• See: https://www.jku.at/en/re-thinking-plastic/ to learn more.