The Master of Water Resources Engineering is a 120-ECTS interuniversity programme organised by KU Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. It trains students to plan, design, operate and manage water projects using numerical simulation and integrated water-management methods.
VLIR-UOS and Belgium’s Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid fund ICP Connect scholarships for the full programme. Teaching takes place in Leuven and Brussels, with the 2026 intake scheduled from September 2026 to September 2028.
Benefits & funding
- A full tuition-fee waiver for the standard two-year programme.
- A €1,400 monthly allowance covering living and accommodation costs, health insurance, installation costs, indirect travel costs and tuition fees.
- A round-trip economy ticket to Belgium, including necessary local flights, plus the return journey to the scholar’s country of residence.
- Ten scholarships were available for this programme in the 2026 intake.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be nationals of, and live at the time of application in, any eligible country: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam or Zimbabwe; nationality and residence need not be the same eligible country.
- Applicants must be no older than 35 on 1 January of the intake year.
- Applicants need an above-average bachelor’s degree in engineering, bioscience engineering, environmental engineering, geography, geology, biology, sciences or a closely related field, with a strong mathematics and natural-sciences background.
- Unless exempt through a qualifying English-language degree, applicants need at least 18/30 in each TOEFL iBT component, 6/9 in each IELTS Academic component or 170 in each CAE/CPE component.
- Applicants may submit only one ICP Connect scholarship application per year, must not hold another scholarship for the programme, and must not have previously received a Belgian-government study scholarship or enrolled at a Belgian higher-education institution before 1 January of the intake year.
- Work experience is not mandatory; preference goes to applicants able to apply or transfer their learning in higher education, government, civil society or another sustainable-development setting.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
Eligible nationalities
Benin · Bolivia · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cambodia · Cameroon · Cuba · DR Congo · Ecuador · Ethiopia · Guinea · Haiti
+ 17 more
Indonesia · Kenya · Madagascar · Mali · Morocco · Mozambique · Nicaragua · Niger · Palestine · Peru · Philippines · Senegal · South Africa · Tanzania · Uganda · Vietnam · Zimbabwe
Residence required
Benin · Bolivia · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cambodia · Cameroon · Cuba · DR Congo · Ecuador · Ethiopia · Guinea · Haiti
+ 17 more
Indonesia · Kenya · Madagascar · Mali · Morocco · Mozambique · Nicaragua · Niger · Palestine · Peru · Philippines · Senegal · South Africa · Tanzania · Uganda · Vietnam · Zimbabwe
Education required
Bachelor
Age requirement
≤ 35 yrs
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Application process
- 1Confirm that both nationality and current residence satisfy the ICP Connect country rule and that the WRE academic and language requirements are met.
- 2Apply to KU Leuven for the Master of Water Resources Engineering by the programme’s scholarship deadline; eligible programme applicants who provide the scholarship documents are considered automatically.
- 3Submit the standard master’s application documents, the ICP Connect scholarship document and the application-fee waiver PDF.
- 4Arrange two recommendation letters in the prescribed format, sent by each recommender from an official email address to the Admissions Office with the required subject line and application number.
- 5Upload English-test results or proof of test registration; for the 2026 intake, final results had to arrive by 1 March 2026.
Program timeline
16 October 2025, 12:00
KU Leuven applications opened for the 2026 intake.
WRE scholarship application deadline.
1 February 2026, 23:59
Final English-test results deadline.
1 March 2026
Programme starts.
September 2026
Programme ends.
September 2028