It is often said that one in three trucks running on European motorways is Dutch. Also, with a cargo turnover of over 400 million tons a year, Rotterdam is the world's 4th biggest port -after Shanghai, Ningbo and Singapore- and, by far, the undisputed European champion, also in container transport and terminal business. By general recognition, Netherlands, the gateway to Europe, is at the forefront of innovation in transport and logistics. The country's shipping policy offers companies one of the most attractive business environments in Europe, successfully challenging all traditional shipping centres. Erasmus, Rotterdam's own university, is at the very centre of all this, distilling the country's knowledge infrastructure in its MSc Course in Maritime Economics and Logistics (MEL); a post-graduate/post-experience international programme aimed at transforming promising young professionals into tomorrow's leaders in business and government.

Our objective is to fast-tracking promising young professionals into tomorrow's leaders in business and government. The program prepares experts with modern economic and management tools for efficient decision-making, providing them at the same time with methods; concepts; and theories to enable them understand and analyze, in a holistic and multidisciplinary way, the complexities of global maritime supply chains. In this way, MEL graduates are expected to be able to act and decide, with managerial style and determination, under complex and uncertain conditions, in a global economic and social environment.

The emphasis of our courses is not on ‘informational’ or ‘ephemeral’ content, but rather on fundamental industrial, economic, and management concepts and methods, of lasting effect, that can be used to explain business practices on the one hand, and policy making processes on the other. To this end, a combination of theory and practice is required. The more conceptual matters are dealt with by University staff while practical aspects are discussed by our partners, such as Maersk Line; APM Terminals; Port of Rotterdam; Europe Container Terminals (ECT); BIMCO; DVB Bank; ABN AMRO Bank.

With students coming from all over the world; more than 50 academic and professional staff from the Erasmus Faculties of Economics and Business Administration; industry partners; visiting professors; and an extensive corporate network, the Erasmus MEL is a spearhead in Holland's maritime cluster and an ambassador of the Nation's leading role in maritime affairs.

MEL is the only taught course of its kind that combines, in a holistic way, shipping, ports, terminal management, and maritime logistics in the academic environment of two of Europe's top Schools: The Erasmus School of Economics and the Rotterdam School of Management. Together with academic excellence, however, MEL strives to achieve a fine balance between theory and practice. This is assured by the selection of our partners and the involvement of our Corporate Network. Through guest lectures, seminars and company visits, MEL students are continuously confronted with the preconceptions of 'conventional wisdom' and learn how to place them in their proper and wider economic perspective.

In addition, our extensive Corporate Network enables MEL students to seek internship and employment opportunities in the most prestigious 'blue chip' organisations and, in many cases, take advantage of their infrastructure and information systems while writing their thesis.

The University's long tradition in transport studies started with the work on shipping and shipbuilding by our late colleague, Professor Jan Tinbergen, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics. This tradition continues nowadays through the PhD programmes in transport and logistics of the Tinbergen Institute, the Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), and the Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics (TRAIL) Research Schools. Thus, cutting-edge research, often externally funded, finds its way to the classroom in a top-down manner. Emphasis on applied research is based on our firm belief that, notwithstanding the importance of 'research for the sake of research', in a discipline as applied as transport and logistics the value of research is demonstrated by society's willingness to underwrite it.

I trust that this website answers your questions about MEL, and I look forward to welcoming you to Rotterdam and to our University.

Prof.dr. Bert de Groot
MEL General Manager