The Environmental Learning Research Centre is the home of a vibrant and diverse community of scholars and environmental education practitioners and forms a regional hub of environmental learning innovation. 

The centre hosts a postgraduate research programme of between 50 to 60 Masters and PhDs scholars. We increasingly work with local, national, regional and international partners to develop research-informed and research-led short and certificate courses; the ELRC enjoys collaborative partnerships with over 50 partners across the world. Linked to this, the research and teaching programme of the ELRC continues to increase in size and scope and enjoys a high demand for its courses and programmes. Through these partnerships, centre aims to promote and encourage social scientific methodological innovation to produce knowledge of African education and social–ecological contexts.

In support of this collaborative approach to knowledge-building, the ELRC’s Sustainability Commons has been developed as a space for social innovation, engaging the border zones between the academy, public sector and civil society; between theory and practice; and knowledge, learning and human agency.

Since 1992, the Environmental Education programme at Rhodes University has successfully graduated 177 Masters scholars (with a supervision team of 2 for most of the time), and 53 PhD scholars producing an average of 6 M.Ed and 1.8 PhD scholars per annum.

Our history
The ELRC was established 30 years ago through the Murray & Roberts Chair of Environmental Education, Africa’s first and only Chair of Environmental Education. In 1997, the ELRC expanded to include the Gold Fields Service Centre, forming the Rhodes Environmental Education Unit, which offered expanded professional development, and policy development services to South African post-apartheid system building, and South Africa’s expanded interactions within SADC. 
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