Welcome day for the students of the first edition of the Erasmus Mundus Master COASTHazar

The rector Ángel Pazos has received the students of this new degree of the ETSI of Civil Engineering and Ports

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The rector of the Universidad de Cantabria (UC), Ángel Pazos, welcomed the first 20 students of the Master COASTHazar (Coastal Hazards – Risks, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation / Coastal Hazards – Risks, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation) this morning. This master is taught at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, together with the universities IHE Delft (coordinator) and the University of Algarve. It is also one of the two new Erasmus Mundus master’s degrees that will start this academic year, 2022-2023, at the institution.

Pazos has highlighted the international character of this university master’s degree while also has transferred to students the reputation of the center that houses it, as well as the Institute of Environmental Hydraulics of Cantabria (IHCantabria). “This center has a great national and international reputation in the area of civil engineering and is fully involved in teaching, research and transfer,” he said.

For his part, Daniel Castro, director of the School, has conveyed to the students of this master’s degree, chosen from among 80 candidates and coming from countries all over the world, the opportunity that this degree represents from which they will come out “very well prepared”.

Álvaro Semedo, the coordinator of the master’s degree and professor at IHE Delft, explained that the master’s degree results from more than four years of joint work and a strong link between the three institutions that support it. “This program is truly unique. It has content you will not be able to find in another university as a single academic degree,” he said.

Erasmus Mundus

The Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros (ETSI) de Caminos, Canales y Puertos offers two Erasmus Mundus programs with other international universities and national and foreign companies in the fields of climate change and construction engineering.

Specifically, the COASTHazar master’s degree aims to provide students with the most advanced knowledge, skills and competencies to face the challenges that coastal hazards and associated risks can generate. The aim is to assess and cope with the impacts of increasing human activities and climate change in coastal areas, thereby designing adaptation measures to minimize those impacts.

COASTHazar presents an integrated and multidisciplinary master’s program offered by three higher education institutions: IHE Delft (coordinator) from the Netherlands, the University of the Algarve from Portugal, and UC itself, together with a group of 34 associated public and private (academic and non-academic) partners.

The master will be taught entirely in English and will allow students to study at the three universities during the first three semesters, for a total of 120 ECTS in 2 years. COASTHazar is a program that is based on the successful teaching experience of two master’s degrees with a track record of more than twenty years, which are taught at the ETSI de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, which are the University Master’s Degree in Coasts and Ports, and the University Master’s Degree in Integrated Management of Water Systems.

COASTHazar is based on the shared vision and complementary experience of the three partner institutions in developing knowledge in the analysis of the risk of coastal areas due to climate change and the design of adaptation measures.