Four years of experience with Erasmus Universityʹs “International Off-Campus PhD programme on cleaner production, cleaner products, industrial ecology and sustainability”

This paper describes the first four yearsʹ experiences with Erasmus Universityʹs “International Off-Campus PhD Programme on Cleaner Production, Cleaner Products, Industrial Ecology and Sustainability.” The proposal for this innovative, off-campus programme was made in 1992, in response to expanding needs for providing environmental professionals the opportunity to continue their employment and to simultaneously work toward fulfilling the requirements of a PhD. After receiving approval and initial financial support from the Board of Deans of Erasmus University, the first INTENSIVE (INTENSIVE is the term used to describe the annual, two-week long training programme within which the new PhD candidates, as well as those who have been in the programme for a year or more, meet to learn more about the rapidly evolving areas addressed by the programme and to report on progress made in each candidateʹs PhD thesis research. The Erasmus faculty and invited supportive co-advisors and other visiting scholars contribute to the scholarly input and candidate guidance.) of the new International PhD Programme was held in October 1995. Since then the programme has expanded and progressed. As of the academic year 1998/1999, twenty-one PhD candidates from eleven countries in five continents were actively pursuing their PhD research and thesis development within the Programme. Six new candidates were admitted during the November 1999 INTENSIVE.