The International Land and Water Management programme focuses on both the technical and socio-economic aspects of agriculture, land use, river management, but it gives the opportunity to further explore many other related topics. Sustainability, irrigation, land degradation, land ownership, and policies are just a few of the most discussed topics.
We deal with land and water management at various scales: inidividual fields or plots, larger structural units like a municipality or an irrigation scheme, and even at country level with policies. As you can probably tell, a wide variety of disciplines are necessary to understand the intricacy of all these subjects; That is why most courses take an interdisciplinary approach to the problems and situations studied. A true land and water manager would be a T-shaped professional, aka a generalist with a specialisation. You don't need to be an expert at everything, but only at what you like the most (as long as you can still understand and work with the other topics, of course).
Being a generalist programme, the opportunities after university are endless (as well as in large demand ;) )! Common careers include: consultant at development companies, agriculture advice organisations, waterboards, nature conservation organisations, governmental bodies / NGOs, soil scientist (lab coat and everything!), professor, Geo-information science (GIS) analyst etc.
The Bachelor
The bachelor's programme (BSc) in International Land and Water Management is a three-year programme. A variety of teaching methods are used, ranging from lectures, tutorials and computer-based learning, to practical field work and excursions, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Students often work in small groups on projects and assignments. The study therefore offers practical, applied, and fundamental (theoretical) knowledge.
Technical and social: as stated before, you need many disciplines in this field, combining learning about topics like soil (how it forms, how it works), water and its movement through nature and pipes, technical details about sprinkler and drip irrigation on one hand, with studying society and how it functions in relation to technology, economics and policies of land and water management on the other.
International: we look at regions all over the world that struggle with land and water management problems, such as floods, water shortage, erosion, or land degradation. Tanzania, Spain, Portugal, Mozambique, South Africa, Ghana, and, of course, The Netherlands are some of the main countries the study takes a look at. Additionally, third year bachelor’s students do an international internship and research project of their choice (for the thesis!). If you want more detailed information about the bachelor, you can click here.
Central Pivot Irrigation system near Albacete, Spain.
The Master
The two-year International Land and Water Management MSc programme focuses on scientific analysis of land and water management issues at different scales. An integration of physical, technical, socio-economic and political dimensions in various approaches is sought to critically analyse, understand and tackle land and water management. Students develop comparative insight into development of land and water management, apply an academic approach to various research paradigms, and acquire a problem-oriented, interdisciplinary attitude towards land and water management and rural development issues.
The programme devotes its attention on land and water management at different scales, to interactive approaches with actors at the respective levels, to the institutional aspects and to the multifaceted consequences of the proposed interventions. You can click this link for more detailed information about the programme, courses, theses and internships.
