Dr Prashan Karunaratne

Award-winning Senior Lecturer, Dr Prashan Karunaratne, is the Course Director of the Bachelor of Commerce in Macquarie Business School.

Prashan Karunaratne is an inspirational and innovative teacher of economics and business analytics at Macquarie University. He inspires students to want to learn – by emphasising the ‘why’ of learning. He inspires students to navigate their own learning journey – by focusing on the ‘how’ of learning.

Prashan works closely with industry. In 2020, Prashan worked with McCrindle, to research and produce the Lost Business Report, for the Business Events Council of Australia. This report was in turn used to lobby the federal government for support to the business events sector.

Prashan also works in the Optus U program, training and upskilling Optus staff from across Australia in Data Analytics and Business Analytics in the Getting Started with Analytics subject where staff from across Optus learn how to enhance their efficiency, productivity, and analytics.

Prashan is engaged in a number of projects across Macquarie University – from helping design the cross-disciplinary Bachelor of Commerce Capstone Unit, engaging in the Widening Participation Unit via LEAP Roadshows and LEAP inROADs, to helping develop HSC Study Labs – HSC Business Studies, to using his research in the area of learning and teaching in business education to run workshops for staff.

Prashan is also a part of the team that designs, develops and delivers the University’s award-winning Excel courses on the Coursera platform – reaching more than one million learners globally. He is the course instructor for these Excel courses which are utilised by international organisations such as the UNDP and UNICEF.

Prashan received a 2019 Australian Award for University Teaching – Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning Award – the Australian government-endorsed, national university teaching awards. The citation was his award was: “For excellence in engaging, equipping and empowering students and lecturers to achieve transformative and equitable outcomes in Economics and Excel – in classrooms, boardrooms and beyond.”

Prashan also received the inaugural Australian Business Deans Council Network Award – Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2020: “The strength of Prashan’s application is that it covers three innovations in the Beginning in a core first year course, Microeconomic Principles, Widening Participation – in Australia and overseas, and the MOOC on Excel Skills for Business, and has numerous impressive awards.”

Prashan was part of the team that received the 2022 Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Educational Leadership for the collaboration of the business school with the Faculty of Science and Engineering capstone teaching teams – getting their students to work together on projects that revolve around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Prashan was invited to contribute 1 of the 23 chapters in the European Union, Erasmus+ project, published in late 2022: Shaping a Sustainable Future – Innovative Teaching Practices for Educating Responsible Leaders.

Prashan’s research, presentations, and projects can be found here.