FIRST YEAR OF GRADUATION OF THE NUCLEAR SAFEGUARDS MASTER STUDENTS

Twenty-five international students, with more than half being women and about half of candidates from the African continent, studied a full year and almost entirely virtually at the first ever academic master program on nuclear safeguards from October 2021 to September 2022. The program was initiated by the European Commission (EC) Directorate General for International Cooperation (DG INTPA), having recognized the lack of a complete university education in this area and building upon the expertise of the European Safeguards Research and Development Association (ESARDA). DG INTPA contracted the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN) to set up this master program. ENEN teamed up with the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), Department of Energy, to develop the course in close collaboration with the EC Joint Research Centre. Three course directors and a broader scientific committee were created to develop the multidisciplinary program involving 50 experts in the teaching. By the registration deadline, 66 students had submitted an application and after an intense selection process 20 international students were selected. In addition, 5 European students enrolled, not paid by EC. The other applicants were directed to other potential capacity building initiatives (e.g. the short ESARDA course) and/or can be considered for the second year of the master that is prepared in the spring 2022. This paper will share the experience of the program building, student selection, course implementation, return of experience of the students, teachers and organisers and report on the outcome of the program, including the thesis work and in-field working experience of the students. It will also provide an outlook for the future and some recommendations on how the course materials can be used for integration in other university programs across the globe to allow more students to be educated on specific elements of the broad field of nuclear safeguards.