Abstract:

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Sustainable Ship and Shipping 4.0 (SEAS 4.0) is an integrated, international, and innovative 90 ECTS programme, taught in English and jointly developed by the SEAS 4.0 Consortium universities: University of Napoli Federico II (Italy), University of A Coruña (Spain), University of Zagreb (Croatia) and the Technical University of Hamburg (Germany).

The development of the SEAS 4.0 Master’s Programme began in 2019 from a collaboration among colleagues from the Consortium universities and was proposed as an alternative to enhance traditional Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering curricula with key components such as Efficiency and Sustainability within the framework of Industry 4.0 and with the primary target of improving internationalization of the proposing institutions. The EU funding was granted in 2020, the first intake of students began their studies in 2021 and the final event of the programme is scheduled for March, 2026.

What began as a small scale collaboration, ended up after six years and four intakes in a programme involving four consortium institutions, seven associate partners from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany and Italy, 80 students from 28 countries and more than 30 companies collaborating in teaching, internships and master thesis supervision.

In addition to the collaboration established through the SEAS 4.0 framework, the partnership between the institutions has significantly expanded, incorporating a broader range of internationalisation activities. This growth included the development and successful implementation of two EU-funded Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs), carried out in Spain in 2025 and in Italy in 2023.

The collaboration has further strengthened through research mobility initiatives, such as PhD student research stays across partner universities, which have enabled knowledge exchange, joint supervision and exposure to complementary research environments. Additionally, the institutions have engaged in the co-authoring of scientific publications, contributing to the advancement of shared research interests and reinforcing the initial academic cooperation which lead to the implementation of the SEAS 4.0 programme.

In this paper, the evolution and outcomes of the SEAS 4.0 initiative will be described, highlighting how a strategically conceived Erasmus Mundus programme can develop into a resilient and far-reaching international ecosystem that strengthens education, research, and industry engagement in the maritime sector.

Moreover, the programme’s achievements—ranging from joint curriculum innovation and global student mobility to interdisciplinary training, research collaboration, and expanded international partnerships— will be also explained in detail. As SEAS 4.0 approaches its final phase, its results and gained experience could provide a solid foundation for future cooperative endeavours and offer a valuable model for advancing excellence and internationalisation in engineering higher education.

Finally, the paper will also incorporate an analysis of the results obtained from student surveys conducted across the four intakes. These surveys provide valuable insights into students’ academic experiences, mobility paths, satisfaction with the interdisciplinary curriculum, perceptions of industry involvement, and the overall effectiveness of the programme in preparing them for emerging challenges in the maritime sector.

Keywords:

Engineering, internationalization, Erasmus Mundus, Naval architecture, joint degrees.