151 students from 35 countries receive their Master diploma

The Director of UNESCO-IHE, Richard Meganck, opened the festivities and congratulated the participants on their achievements. Ms. Sun Feng from the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC) of China and alumnus of the Institute was this year's guest speaker and held a presentation on how graduating at the Institute affected her professional life.

“I am the first YRCC staff member who had the chance to study at this Institute. When I returned to the Yellow River Commission in 2001, I was appointed as the director of International Cooperation and the first challenge that I faced was to prepare a five year training and capacity building program for the Young YRCC professionals”, explained Ms. Feng. “When I looked at the first level colleges for water education in the world, my first choice to assist me in this task was IHE. You may think that was my intention from the outset, but I really did examine other possibilities and still I think that IHE offers one of the most important training opportunities anyplace in the world”.

The director of the Institute, Mr. Meganck, encouraged the graduates to keep working hard to ensure that their countries benefit from the progresses they have made these months: “I met with a group of graduating participants as part of my ongoing education as to how this Institute can improve its services and products to you and your countries. To a person they agreed that the most valuable and tangible product of their experience here at UNESCO-IHE is the network of professional colleagues – both fellow participants as well as staff and faculty of this Institute. Of this we can all take pride.”