The Role of Universities in Achieving the Key Objectives of the Circular Economy Strategy

The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan has guided significant changes in recent years in terms of customer behaviour, public or private models and processes. One of the biggest supports came from the education system that plays an important role in ensuring a correct and efficient application of the policy. Therefore, our study is set to fill in the gaps in the current literature by analysing the correlation between the main pillars of circular economy and higher education to determine the existence of such influence and the pattern that each EU member state follows. The results have shown full and partial validations of the considered hypotheses, with the higher education drivers having significant impact on recycling rates and waste generation, and less on the value added to the economy.