The programme is built on a methodical framework, consisting of two course types: compulsory courses (39 CP) and optional courses (6 CP). The compulsory courses represent the core of the programme, while the optional courses offer students a way of exploring possible future (career) paths and allow for specialization in a certain aspect of the maritime world. The three pillars are represented in both course types. The courses are supplemented by the submission of a master’s thesis on a maritime or transport oriented topic (15 CP). In this written dissertation, students prove their ability to analyse a specific topic thoroughly and independently. At an oral presentation, students have the opportunity to clarify their research and defend their findings.

Technical-general content

The technical-general content of the programme covers the typical technical infrastructure and facilities in ports, the scientific and technical principles that govern ships and contemporary problems ports may encounter.

COMPULSORY COURSES:

  • Ship Technology
  • Port Technology
  • Contemporary Port Problems
  • Study Trip and Field Trips

OPTIONAL COURSES:

  • Port Planning
  • Port History

Economic-logistic content

The economic-logistic content of the study programme intends to familiarize students with the unique economic character of maritime transport, which is a global phenomenon with very specific dynamics. Therefore it is crucial that students learn about the economic principles that govern and affect port authorities, shipping companies and transport firms.

COMPULSORY COURSES:

  • Transport Economics and Policy
  • Maritime and Port Economics
  • Supply Chain Management

OPTIONAL COURSES:

  • Urban Mobility and Logistics
  • Sustainable Mobility and Logistics

Legal content

The legal content of the programme aims at gaining an in-depth knowledge of the legal aspects of maritime transport.

COMPULSORY COURSES:

  • Law of the Sea
  • Maritime Law
  • Transport Law

OPTIONAL COURSES:

  • Law of the Sea: Special Issues
  • International and European River Law
  • Transport Insurance Law

Study programme

Courses Lecturer Semester Contact hours Study time Credits
General courses 39
Port Technology P. De Baets + P. Troch 1 45 150 5
Ship Technology E. Lataire 1 45 150 5
Contemporary Port Problems D. Schalck + J. Lagasse 2 30 90 3
Study Trip and Field Trips K. Willaert Y 90 150 5
Transport Economics and Policy F. Witlox 1 30 90 3
Maritime and Port Economics T. Notteboom 2 45 120 4
Supply Chain Management (VUB) H. Buldeo Rai 2 40 150 5
Law of the Sea K. Willaert 1 30 90 3
Maritime Law K. Willaert 1 30 90 3
Transport Law K. Willaert 2 30 90 3
Elective courses 6
Port History C. Koninckx 1 30 90 3
Port Planning T. Notteboom 2 45 90 3
Urban Mobility and Logistics G. Circella 1 30 90 3
Sustainable Mobility and Logistics (VUB) C. Macharis 1 24 90 3
Law of the Sea: Special Issues  E. Franckx 2 30 90 3
Transport Insurance Law R. De Wit 2 30 90 3
International and European River Law M. De Decker 1 30 90 3
Master's Dissertation 15
  60

Teaching staff

Select teaching staff member
Prof. dr.
Heleen Buldeo Rai
Prof. Dr.
Patrick De Baets
Prof. Dr.
Marc De Decker
Prof. Dr.
Erik Franckx
Prof. Dr.
Christian Koninckx
Prof.
Jan Lagasse
Prof. Dr.
Evert Lataire
Prof. Dr.
Cathy Macharis
Prof. Dr.
Theo Notteboom
Prof.
Daan Schalck
Prof. Dr.
Peter Troch
Prof. dr.
Ralph De Wit
Prof. Dr.
Klaas Willaert
Prof. Dr.
Frank Witlox
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Heleen Buldeo Rai

Heleen Buldeo Rai

Heleen Buldeo Rai is an assistant professor and senior researcher at the Mobilise research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Supported by a fellowship from Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), she specialises in e-commerce, urban logistics and sustainability. Heleen obtained a PhD in Business Economics at the MOBI research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2019 in Brussels, Belgium and carried out postdoctoral research at the Logistics City chair of the Université Gustave Eiffel between 2020 and 2022 in Paris, France. Her doctoral thesis is titled “Environmental sustainability of the last mile in omnichannel retail”. Heleen has authored several scientific publications and teaches in Bachelor and Master programmes. She published a best practice guide on sustainable e-commerce in 2021. Her book was awarded by Platform Innovation in Marketing in 2022.

Courses
Supply Chain Management
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Patrick de Baets

Patrick De Baets

Patrick De Baets is professor of Machine Elements and Tribology at Ghent University and is heading Soete Laboratory (Ghent University), specialized in mechanical design, fracture mechanics and tribology. His research focuses on the friction and wear of advanced materials (polymers, ceramics and composites) in highly demanding mechanical applications. Since more than 20 years he is teaching specialized courses on Machine Design, Machine Elements and Tribology to Mechanical Engineering students. Besides that he has gained 15 years of experience in teaching general courses on Mechanical Engineering to non-technical audiences, such as e.g. business engineering students.

Courses
Port Technology
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Mark de Decker

Marc De Decker

Marc De Decker holds a master degree in Law (1984) and a graduate in Maritime Sciences (1993). He became Doctor in Law in 2003 on the subject of “Legal aspects of codification and harmonisation of European international river regimes”. He is working as a lawyer at the Antwerp bar since 1984 and is president of the Belgian Inland Navigation Federation. He is specialised in maritime and river law and published many books and articles on maritime and river navigation and transport insurance. For his monograph on European International River Law (2014) he recently obtained the prestigious triennial award of the François Genicot Foundation.

Courses
International and European River Law
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Eric Franckx

Erik Franckx

Erik Franckx is a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, honorary professor at the Nelson Mandela University, as well as professeur émérite at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He holds moreover teaching assignments at the Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; the University of Akureyri, Iceland; and the Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Besides numerous articles on the Law of the Sea, he has also updated, together with John Noyes and Kristen Juras, two standard works of Louis B. Sohn in this domain, namely The Law of the Sea in a Nutshell (West, 2nd ed. 2010, 3rd ed. In preparation) and Cases and Materials on the Law of the Sea (Brill, 2nd ed. 2014).

He served between 2017 and 2022 as President of the Belgian Society for International Law and was appointed by Belgium as expert in marine scientific research for use in special arbitration under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 Convention) since 2004, as expert in maritime boundary delimitation to the International Hydrographic Organization since 2005, and as arbitrator under the 1982 Convention starting in 2014. Between 2006 and 2012 he was appointed by his country as member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

He served as a consultant to governments (foreign as well as the three levels of the Belgian state structure, i.e. the federal, regional and community level), international, supra national and non-governmental organizations. He was legal counsel on behalf of the Netherlands in the Arctic Sunrise Arbitration against the Russian Federation (2013 - 2017).

Courses
Law of the Sea: Special Issues
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Christiaan Konickx

Christian Koninckx

Christian Koninckx holds a master degree in History (ULB/VUB, 1968-1970) and successfully defended his PhD in History in 1975. He worked in several positions at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and became full-time professor in 2000. He was secretary-general of the International Commission of Maritime History (1985-1990) and chairman of the Royal Marine Society of Belgium (1993-2002). After a very busy career, professor Koninckx retired in 2013, but he is still very actively involved in the academic world. His main topic of research concerns maritime history.

Courses
Port History
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Jan Lagasse

Jan Lagasse

Jan Lagasse obtained his Masters degree in Law at the Ghent University and later completed his studies at Harvard University (US) and the International Institute for Management Development (CH).

He started his professional carreer as a professor's assistant at the Law Faculty of the Ghent University and in 1987 continued his career in several multinational companies. He worked for The Dow Chemical Company, Koninklijke Hoogovens (now Tata Steel) and Fokker (now GKN) in different functions (General counsel, M&A Manager, Post Merger Integration Officer, CEO) in different countries (The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, UK & USA).

Since 1999 he always assumed the position of Managing Director/CEO and in 2014 he became CEO of Zeeland Seaports, a major Dutch port. He accomplished the merger of the Dutch Zeeland Seaports with the Belgian Port of Ghent in 2018 to create North Sea Port and was co-CEO of the merger port until late 2020. He is now a board member of several companies and associations, an independent consultant to ports in Europe and was appointed by King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands as Honorary Counsel-General of the Netherlands.

Prof. Jan Lagasse is co-lecturer in the MSc in Maritime Science programme, where he teaches the course Contemporary Port Problems with prof. Daan Schalck.

Courses
Contemporary Port Problems
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Evert Lataire

Evert Lataire

Evert Lataire graduated in 2004 at Delft University of Technology (Master of Science, Maritime Technology, Ship Hydrodynamics) and obtained his PhD at Ghent University in 2014. He is professor and head of the Maritime Technology Division (Ghent University) and lectures at the Antwerp Maritime Academy. His research focuses mainly on the manoeuvring behaviour of ships in shallow and confined water and is often based upon model tests carried out in the confined water towing tank of Flanders Hydraulics Research (Antwerp, Belgium). He participated since the founding in the new shallow water towing tank, currently under construction in Ostend, Belgium and is co-organiser of all editions of the International Conference on Ship Behaviour in Shallow and Confined Water.

Courses
Ship Technology
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Cathy Macharis

Cathy Macharis

Cathy Macharis is professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She teaches courses in supply chain management and sustainable mobility and logistics. She is specialised in the assessment of policy measures and innovative concepts in the field of sustainable logistics and urban mobility. She is head of the research group MOBI (Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology) and the department BUTO (Business Technology and Operations. She is the chairwoman of the Brussels Mobility Commission.

Courses
Sustainable Mobility and Logistics (VUB)
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Theo Notteboom

Theo Notteboom

Since January 2016, Theo Notteboom holds the North Sea Port Chair at the Maritime Institute of Ghent University. He is council member and former president of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), was president of ITMMA and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Belgian Institute of Transport Organizers (BITO). Theo published extensively on port and maritime economics and management: his work is widely cited and he has received many prestigious awards for his study of ports. He is a rapporteur/expert to leading organizations in the field and has been involved in various academic research programs and consultancy studies on the maritime industry and logistics topics. He is also editor of different academic journals and co-director of PortEconomics, a knowledge dissemination platform on port studies.

Courses
Maritime and Port Economics
Port Planning
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Daan Schalck

Daan Schalck

After his studies at Ghent University, Daan Schalck started his professional career in 1988 in the field of drinking water. Between 1995 and 1999, he was advisor on economics and port related issues to the civic officer in Ghent and from 1999 to 2004, he was member of the Belgian federal parliament, where he specialized in government-owned companies and mobility. In 2004, Daan Schalck moved to the private sector and started working for Ernst & Young. However, the maritime world remained a great interest: in 2007 he became general director of a company in the port of Antwerp and in 2009 he returned to his roots, taking up the function of CEO of the port of Ghent. From January 2018 onwards, following a merger with Zealand Seaports, the name of Port of Ghent was transformed into “North Sea Port”. Daan is also chairman of the Mobility Council of Flanders, providing strategic advice to the Flemish Government.

Courses
Contemporary Port Problems
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Peter Troch

Peter Troch

Peter Troch is professor of coastal engineering and department chair at the Department of Civil Engineering, Ghent University. He is coordinating the design and construction of the new Coastal & Ocean Basin wave tank at Ostend Science Park. He holds a Master (1991) and PhD degree in Civil Engineering from Ghent University. His research is focusing on coastal structures, on ocean wave energy and on eco‐hydraulics. He is co-author of the international EurOtop overtopping manual and associated editor of various journals. He is teaching since more than 20 years specialized courses on coastal structures and integrated water management.

Courses
Port Technology
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Ralph De Wit

Ralph De Wit

Prof. Dr. Ralph De Wit is guestprofessor of Insurance Law and Transport Insurance Law at Ghent University as of academic year 2024-2025.

Courses
Transport Insurance Law
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Klaas Willaert

Klaas Willaert

Klaas Willaert graduated as Master in Law (summa cum laude) at Ghent University in 2012 and obtained an Advanced Master in Maritime Science (summa cum laude) in 2013. After finishing his studies, he worked as a research assistant at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University and wrote a doctoral thesis on the fight against maritime piracy, which he successfully defended in 2018. The law of the sea is his area of expertise and he has conducted postdoctoral research into the legal aspects of deep sea mining. He holds memberships of the International Association for the Law of the Sea, the Belgian Association of Maritime Law and the Royal Belgian Marine Academy, and is part of the editorial boards of the Journal of International Maritime Law, the Journal for International Trade and Transport Law and the Belgian marine journal De Grote Rede.

Courses
Law of the Sea
Maritime Law
Transport Law
Study Trip and Field Trips
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Frank Witlox

Frank Witlox

Frank Witlox is professor of Economic Geography at the Department of Geography of Ghent University. He holds a PhD in Urban Planning, a Master’s Degree in Applied Economics and a Master’s Degree in Maritime Sciences. Frank’s research focuses on travel behavior analysis and modeling, travel and land use, sustainable mobility issues, business travel, cross-border mobility, city logistics, global commodity chains, globalization and world city-formation, polycentric urban development and locational analysis of corporations. Frank Witlox is the current chairman of BIVEC-GIBET and the Belgium Institute of Transport Organizers (BITO-IBOT). As of January 1, 2016 he is the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Transport Geography, a leading interdisciplinary journal focusing on the geographical dimensions of transport, travel and mobility.

Courses
Transport Economics and Policy
Urban Mobility and Logistics