Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
The Centre
WEDC is one of the world’s leading education and research centres for developing knowledge and capacity in water and sanitation for low and middle-income countries.
Our interests include water supply and sanitation service delivery for development, emergencies and humanitarian situations; and holistic and multidisciplinary approaches – technologies, institutions, financing, social aspects, policy and knowledge.
WEDC is part of the School of Civil and Building Engineering which has consistently achieved top ratings in the Research Assessment Exercise.
WEDC is the largest university institution in the UK working on infrastructure and services for international development, and our reputation with the international water supply and sanitation community is established over 40 years.
Our programmes meet the needs of the sectors and professionals they support. As a graduate, this greatly improves employability. Many WEDC alumni hold senior positions in government and international organisations.
Flexible learning
Learning with us is flexible. You can learn in different ways and at different levels. Come to WEDC or study by distance-learning, or both.
Choose from one of our postgraduate programmes and study towards a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or Master of Science degree (MSc). Alternatively, we will help you to tailor-make a programme from our wide range of stand-alone modules to suit your particular professional development requirements.
With appropriate qualifications, you can also study by research towards a PhD. Most programmes have two start dates so that you can select the better one for you. For example, our taught MSc programmes start in October or November, and our MSc distance-learning programmes start in January or July.
WEDC Networking
One of the key benefits of attending a programme at WEDC is networking with people from other countries and cultures. The Staff-Student Committee strengthens this by organising social activities involving families and WEDC staff.
Wider social activities take place in halls of residence and elsewhere across the campus, including a variety of clubs and use of some of the best sporting and recreational facilities in the UK.
The WEDC Community
The WEDC learning environment comprises lecture rooms, staff offices and our dedicated Resources Centre. We also use School and other engineering facilities.
Complementing the University’s Pilkington Library, the WEDC Resources Centre now houses a computer information management system containing details of nearly 16,000 items on a customised database allowing for easy retrieval of information by students, staff and visitors.