MSc in Fire Safety Engineering

Programme overview

The International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE) is a two-year educational programme in the Erasmus+ framework. This Master’s programme is organised jointly by:

• Ghent University, Belgium (coordinator)
• Lund University, Sweden
• The University of Edinburgh, UK

These three leading European research universities with complementary expertise in the field of fire safety engineering (FSE) join together with the main objective of creating an educational programme that defines the required knowledge for a professional fire safety engineer, capable of developing a Performance-Based Design (PBD). The three IMFSE universities are leading European institutions in the field of fire safety, providing both educational programmes and high-level research. Ghent aims at general FSE, Lund is recognised in enclosure fire dynamics, CFD modelling, human behaviour during fires and evacuation, and methods for risk assessment, and Edinburgh is the developer of the first curriculum in structural fire safety engineering.

The consortium has three associated partners: ETH Zürich, Switzerland, The University of Queensland, Australia and the University of Maryland, USA.

IMFSE also involves 15 industrial partners as official sponsors. With their annual financial contributions and EU support, it has been possible to create the ‘Sponsorship Consortium’, which awards IMFSE students full or partial scholarships.

The IMFSE programme consists of four semesters of 30 ECTS credits each. The mobility structure, with a possible change in study location after each semester, gives the students the opportunity to gain from the strengths and expertise of each of the three universities.

The classes in the first semester can be attended in Ghent or Edinburgh. All students spend the second semester in Lund. In the third semester, classes are again taught in Ghent (for general FSE) or Edinburgh (with focus on structural engineering in the context of FSE). The fourth semester is devoted to the Master’s thesis, hosted by one of the three institutes or associate partners and is often performed in collaboration with one of the programme sponsors.

Fire safety engineering

Fire safety engineering is a multidisciplinary field that requires a deep understanding of building design and construction, the thermo-chemical processes associated to fire growth, human behaviour and the representation of the many uncertainties through risk assessments. A fire safety engineer fulfils a broad range of duties, all related to fire safety. This can range from designing fire protection for a space station to ensuring that the occupants of buildings are safe from fire. Fire safety engineers have always been in great demand by industry, insurance companies, rescue services, educational institutions, consulting firms and government bodies around the world.

The major educational objectives of the Master’s Programme are that the Master’s students in FSE:

• are able to critically evaluate and construct an original, performance-based, fire safety design.
• understand the complexity and evolution of the design tools and the many existing gaps in knowledge and limitations.
• understand the current research trends and are able to subsequently perform scientific (PhD level) research in the domain of FSE.
• gain an awareness of the professional context and the broad problems in FSE.

The detailed educational objectives of this course are that the Master’s students in FSE:

• can evaluate and make a motivated choice of different types of fire detection and suppression (passive and active) and develop a quantitative performance assessment.
• can identify structural weaknesses in fire and provide a quantitative assessment of performance.
• can make detailed risk analyses.
• can establish quantitative egress patterns in case of fire.
• have knowledge of national and international (especially European) regulation.
• can collaborate with FSE colleagues.