New Eucor Master’s Programme in Sustainable Management of Water Systems

From autumn 2026, the University of Strasbourg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will offer a new master’s programme, Continental Water Sustainability (CWS), within the framework of Eucor – The European Campus and UNESCO’s Ecohydrology Youth programme.

In the face of climate change, water management has become one of the major challenges of our time. How to overcome water-use conflicts and maintain the life-supporting functions of inland water socio-ecosystems (rivers, lakes, groundwater, wetlands etc.) on the long term: the issues are numerous and deeply interconnected. It is in this context that the Continental Water Sustainability master’s programme, taught entirely in English, aims to train a new generation of water sustainability professionals. The programme will enable students to design innovative solutions to hydrosystem management challenges, implement them in real-world contexts and communicate them effectively to a wide range of stakeholders.

“Our graduates will be able to connect knowledge from natural and social sciences with engineering and communication,” explains Professor Karl Matthias Wantzen, holder of the Cross-Border Chair in Water and Sustainability, UNESCO Chair, and Scientific Director of the programme.

“Sustainable water management requires systems thinking and cross-discipline solutions. The Eucor CWS master’s programme trains specialists capable of translating scientific findings into concrete strategies and tools for public decision-makers, administrations and practitioners,” adds Mário Franca, Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management at KIT.

To achieve these objectives, the master’s programme is based on a firmly transdisciplinary approach. In addition to a solid academic foundation, students are quickly exposed to real-life situations through projects, partly proposed by public and private partners. This gradual immersion in the complexity of water-related challenges enables them to develop practical expertise even before entering the professional world.

This two-year programme leads to the award of a double degree delivered by KIT and the University of Strasbourg. The programme is coordinated by ITI SWITCH and EOST in Strasbourg and by the Institute for Water and Environment at KIT, and is co-accredited by the National School for Water and Environmental Engineering of Strasbourg (ENGEES).

The Master’s programme is based on the collaboration and outcomes of the Seed Money project MWS – European Master in Continental Water Sustainability (2022–2025).