Safety Engineering, MSc

KU Leuven, Belgium

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The award	How you will study	Study duration	Course start	Domestic course fees	International course fees
MSc	Full-time	1 year	September	find out	find out

About Safety Engineering, MSc - at KU Leuven

Our modern society puts us in constant confrontation with safety-related challenges across many different areas. The increasing awareness for health, safety and environment results in a growing number of rules and regulations at the European level. The Master of Safety Engineering meets the existing need and growing demand for safety experts for society and industry.

What is the programme all about?

The programme teaches you about safety management systems, prevention policy, safety of products, processes and installations, risk evaluation methods, explosion safety, and offers specialisations on occupational safety (prevention) and on safety of industrial processes (process safety). You will obtain in-depth knowledge on technical and managerial process safety concepts with regard to the whole life cycle of a production plant, and risk management including qualitative and quantitative risk evaluation methods. Further differentiation is being obtained in two options: process safety and prevention.

Programme outline

The Master of Safety Engineering comprises 60 credits in total.

The programme consists of a group of common compulsory courses (17 credits). This core contains courses with themes that are of interest to every safety professional, irrespective of the specialisation option. All courses in this part are taught in English. This core part ensures that every student is given the same broad basic education about the field of safety in an occupational and industrial context.

The core courses cover prevention policy and safety management systems, safety of products, chemical processes and industrial installations, qualitative risk analysis techniques, and explosion safety.

You then choose one of two options (28 credits):

Process Safety: Provides you with a detailed knowledge of technical and managerial process safety concepts with regard to the whole life cycle of a production plant from concept, to design, to construction and operation and decommissioning. Safety concepts of representative unit operations are presented in a series of case studies. Examples of required safety oriented competences in industrial operations are also discussed. It is shown how risk evaluations and estimates based on qualitative and quantitative methods are performed.
Prevention: Focuses on occupational safety and health. The compulsory courses in this option also discuss organisational, physical and cognitive ergonomics and legal aspects related to occupational safety. This option is mainly of interest if you want to obtain the Certificaat Preventieadviseur Niveau 1 (Prevention Advisor Certificate Level 1) issued by the Belgian federal government. You are Dutch speaking or have a language certificate for Dutch. Elective courses can be chosen from an indicative list or from any master’s programme within the Science, Engineering and Technology Group.

Finally, you complete a master’s thesis (15 credits) where you provide a critical review and solution to a safety-related research question. Topics can be taken from academia or industry.

The programme can be completed in one year on a full-time basis, or can be followed on a two year part-time basis, which facilitates working professionals’ participation of working professionals. Lectures and seminars are organized on 2½ day per week on average, with a few courses which are taught in a week module.

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Learn more about Safety Engineering, MSc - at KU Leuven

Visit course webpage