As a United Nations agency, IMO is firmly committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is about delivering quality education. An important element of its efforts in this regard are its two maritime educational institutions – the World Maritime University (WMU) and the IMO International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI). Both are focussed on delivering high-level education in maritime-related subjects to students from developing countries.
Sunday 4 November saw the graduation ceremony for WMU’s class of 2018. One of the largest to date, it comprised 267 graduates from 71 countries – a third of whom are women. There were 124 MSc graduates from the WMU’s Malmö headquarters and 58 from its China programme, plus two PhD graduates and 83 graduates from WMU’s distance-learning programmes.
This year, WMU is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Since its inception, its curriculum has expanded and evolved, from initial programmes in maritime safety and marine environment protection, to embrace maritime energy management and ocean sustainability, governance and management. The class of 2018 brings the total number of WMU graduates to 4,921 from 168 countries, many of whom have gone on to hold senior positions in their countries and in the wider maritime world. Current IMO Secretary-General and WMU Chancellor Kitack Lim is himself a WMU graduate.