Learning Environment

The Nordic master in Environmental Engineering takes advantage of the strong competencies in the Nordic region within education, research and innovation. The staff involved in the programme are active in research, having published numerous papers in internationally acknowledged journals, as well as several text books for graduate students. Furthermore, many members of the staff are involved in international cooperation within research and development projects financed, for instance, by the European Union.

Your education will include lectures, seminars and a large amount of project work. In many courses the learning approach is problem-based learning (PBL), which is characterized by using real life situations and group work as a starting point for learning, and the students' own responsibility for obtaining knowledge. Some course work will be given in close connection with different companies, enabling the students' exposure to industry, guest lecturers and cutting-edge project work. In addition, all of the universities are well equipped with databars and other computing facilities, making it possible to include numerical simulation in the learning process, and in this way to prepare you for your future work in industry or science.

Furthermore, each partner university has special research focuses:

• Aalto: The department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is part of the Aalto University School of Engineering. The department has its roots deep in the old Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the activities of which came to an end in connection with the organizational renewal in the end of the year 2007. The new department represents distinguished traditions of civil engineering. Its fields of education and research are among the oldest disciplines of the School. A functional community needs effective water, wastewater and waste management, sufficient water resources, smooth and safe transportation connections, environmentally friendly construction and maintenance of infrastructure, sustainable geo- and rock engineering and high level planning and research skills in development of urban structure and environment.
  The department has a strong profile. Since 1987 the students have been recruited to a separate degree programme option in transportation and environmental engineering.
  Research is conducted in 3 areas (see here for more details):

• GeoEngineering 
• Transportation and Highway Engineering
• Water and Environmental Engineering

• Chalmers: The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is divided into 6 divisions. Two divisions, Water Environment Technology (WET) and GeoEngineering (GEO), offer together 13 specialist courses in the Master's program Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering and 6 courses at bachelor level in the Civil Engineering program. There are 5 research competence centers and two of them are strongly involved: Forum for Risk Investigation and Soil Treatment (FRIST); and Framework Programme for Drinking Water Research (DRICKS). Each year WET and GEO together publishes more than 20 internationally refereed journal papers. 
  The Master of Science degree program is strongly coupled to the research carried out in the following areas (see here for more details):
  
  
  • Geotechnical Engineering
  • Engineering Geology
  • Sustainable Aquatic Systems
  • Engineering Hydraulics
  • Risk Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Areas (both soil and water)
    
    
• DTU: The Department of Environmental Engineering is amongst the top five environmental engineering institutes in Europe in terms of number of staff and the impact of its scientific research. It offers 53 specialist courses in its Bachelors and Masters programs. Each year DTU Environment publishes more than 100 international refereed journal papers. In 2008, the Danish Ministry of Science and Technology selected the Environment as one of 6 priority areas for research in its FORSK 2015 Strategy. DTU has research strength in many of the areas named in the strategy.
  Research is conducted in 4 areas (see here for more details):
  • Water Resources Engineering
  • Urban Water Engineering
  • Residual Resource Engineering
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Environmental Management 
• NTNU: Engineering science was evaluated by an international expert committee set up by the Research Council of Norway in 2004. The two former groups were rated as "excellent". The latter was rated as "good", but has since then strengthened in both capacity and quality. The two latter groups are reponsible for the Departments activity in the EU project TRUST. The Water and Wastewater Engineering group has recently been a part of the EU projects EUROMBRA and TECHNEAU. The five year integrated study program Civil and Environmental Engineering at NTNU was recently renewed to address changing requirements to the MSc candidates from society and industry. The syllabus addresses problems and challenges on supplying and sustaining water, energy and the necessary infrastructure renewal both on a national and global scale, aiming at giving students a holistic perspective on the management of resources and recycling.
  The Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering performs research in three areas (see here for more details):
• • Hydraulic Engineering
  • Water and Wastewater Engineering
  • Industrial Ecology