HRH, the Prince of Wales, Founder and President of the Prince's Foundation, announced the new MSc in Sustainable Engineering Management for International Development last year when he officially opened the University’s new Bay campus. 

Engineers at the University have been developing the course over the last nine months in collaboration with the University’s College of Arts and Humanities and the Prince's Foundation.

Associate Professor, Dr James Holness is responsible for International Collaborations for the College of Engineering.  Speaking about the new MSc, he said: “The new programme addresses the vital needs of developing countries where most of the world’s construction is now located.  These countries face multiple challenges, from reducing extreme poverty and providing food for an expected 10 billion people by 2050, to dealing with the threats of manmade climate change and irreversible loss of bio-diversity and natural habitats.”

The programme is focused around two projects, one in Zambia and one in Kenya, each with teams of four students.

New practitioners of the course will need to understand and be able to enhance environments through myriad engineering issues and develop designs in collaboration with the communities they serve.

Dr Holness said: “From the applications we had, we selected five engineers, including one from Ghana and one from Brazil, a product designer and two social scientists.

Between the teams there are an equal number of males and females.  The College was awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze Award in October 2016 and this is an excellent example of the College’s continued commitment to gender equality.”

The new programme is a natural extension of a number of highly successful College of Engineering student mobility projects over the past few years in Zambia, Liberia and South Africa.  The programme focuses on “applied” sustainable engineering projects in a real life environment, with interaction with real stakeholders in an international development context.

Simon Sadinsky, Head of Education at the Prince’s Foundation said: “We are excited to be collaborating with Swansea University in delivering this innovative new course. It is our hope that the multi-disciplinary and international nature of the programme and access the students will have to live projects will be transformative for both those on the course and the projects on which they will be participating.”

The MSc programme will be launched alongside a new student society, the Sustainable Engineering & International Development (SEID) Group, at an event on 5 October.  Sarah-Jane Potts is one of the students leading SEID.  She said: “The SEID project group will provide members with hands-on experience working on real world problems alongside the new MSc students. We will also be working closely with the new Swansea University Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Society which will provide a further range of projects, outreach opportunities with local schools as well as talks, workshops and seminars by inspirational companies and individuals."

The launch event will be held in Room B001, in the College of Engineering, at Swansea University’s Bay Campus on 5 October at 6pm.  All are welcome to attend.