A Sustainable Evolution in Packaging Design Education at the University of Twente

In recent decades, the field of product-packaging development underwent a notable maturation. A pivotal aspect of this evolution can be attributed to the strategic focus on future generations of packaging designers and engineers, positioning education as a critical component in the advancement of packaging innovation. Within the Dutch educational landscape, the University of Twente stands out, offering the country's only master courses dedicated to packaging design and management, as part of the Industrial Design Engineering educational programme. The programme distinguishes itself through its industry-centric focus, cultivating collaboration with external organizations and ensuring the direct applicability of students' knowledge, all while maintaining a robust emphasis on academic value. Furthermore, the shaping of graduation assignments allows for significant autonomy for both students and clients, fostering a dynamic interplay between theoretical learning and real-world application. A valuable analysis within this context is the evolution of sustainability-centred themes as a key focus in packaging design graduation assignments. Examining the theses completed under the guidance of the Packaging Design and Management chair between 2007 and 2023 (from the chair's initiation up to the last completed calendar year), a total of 141 assignments showcases a diverse array of topics and levels of aggregation. Analysing the core themes represented in these theses demonstrates that 58 of these assignments had 'sustainability' centralised. The emphasis on sustainability-related themes increased over the years, from 24.5% between 2007 and 2012 to 33.3% between 2013 and 2018, and further to 60.7% between 2019 and 2023. This paper analyses the sustainability-related evolution in packaging-oriented graduation assignments at UTwente, exploring its implications for educational developments and fortifying the symbiotic relationship between students' interests and clients' desires related to this theme. Following, this paper aims to define key points to shape the position of the 'designers of the future' in an ever-evolving packaging field.