Opening of Academic Year celebrates new IHE Delft students’ potential
Speakers at the IHE Delft Opening of the Academic Year ceremony encouraged the new students to learn not only from the academics, but also from each other. The ceremony marked the start of intense studies that will prepare them for impactful roles as water leaders.
The ceremony celebrated the 85 students from 31 countries who are beginning their studies for the IHE Delft MSc in Water and Sustainable Development and seven students who are pursuing an MSc in Water Science and Engineering in Hydropower Development, a degree offered jointly by IHE Delft and the University of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
IHE Delft Rector Eddy Moors noted that the students’ energy, efforts and ideas are needed to overcome the challenges the world is facing, including increasingly frequent extreme weather events and pollution that threatens scarce water resources.
He said he hoped the students would become water leaders who are critical thinkers that “appreciate different perspectives and the different perceptions” of people around them, and encouraged them to learn from and support each other during the intense learning journey ahead.
Alumni award
The ceremony also celebrated the winner of the 2024 IHE Delft Alumni Award, Nile Basin Secretariat Executive Director Florence Adongo from Uganda, who earned her MSc at IHE Delft in 1997. Her IHE Delft studies laid a strong foundation for an impactful her professional journey in water and environmental resources management, she said.
“To be recognized as a woman role-model in a field that is often male-dominated brings immense pride and responsibility,” she said. “Women’s perspectives and unique insights are crucial in decision-making processes and peace building, especially in the water fraternity, which directly impacts lives of communities. However, there are very few women in leadership in this sector.”
“To be recognized as a woman role-model in a field that is often male-dominated brings immense pride and responsibility.”
She encouraged the students to help each other, both during their time at IHE Delft, and later, when they are part of the Institute’s alumni community of more than 25,000: “Peer-to-peer learning is extremely important and critical: we need to make sure that all of us move together,” she said.
Open space for ideas
Student Association Board head Isaq Tuna, a Kenyan student beginning his second year for the two-year Research MSc in Water and Sustainable Development, told the students IHE Delft is an open space where they can discuss their ideas freely. Noting that they have challenging studies ahead, he told them to “remember not to be too hard on yourself, and don’t hesitate to reach out for support if you need it. You are not alone.”
Circularity needed
Tânia Vasconcelos Fernandes, IHE Delft Professor of Ecotechnologies for Circular Economy, shared insights of her research, noting that the way humans use water and other resources is leading to the crossing of our planetary boundaries.
“We need to move away from our linear system,” she said. “Circularity is definitely needed. We need to start recycling our elements. This is what nature has always been doing – there is no waste in nature, there’s only resources, because the waste of one is the resource of another.”
Susanna Lööf
Manager Communication Office
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