Port 2000, Le Havre's deep water terminal, was built for the world's largest container ships. For one week in June, it became a classroom too, confronting how ports adapt to climate change and automation across engineering, law, geography, robotics and history.
From 15 to 19 June 2026, Université Le Havre Normandie (ULHN, France) hosted "Ports of the Future," the first EUNICoast International Summer School, a three ECTS blended intensive programme organised with West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin (ZUT, Poland), Stralsund University of Applied Sciences (HOST, Germany) and Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI, Slovenia), with academic coordination provided by Université Le Havre Normandie's International Relations Office. The programme's funding came through the strategic partnership led by the Campus Polytechnique des Territoires Maritimes et Portuaires (CPTMP), supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the France 2030 programme, a funding stream distinct from EUNICoast's own Erasmus+ European Universities grant and one the alliance drew on alongside Erasmus+ mobility funding for individual students.
Lectures ranged widely, from Mediterranean port geopolitics and decarbonisation to blockchain and the law governing stevedoring and maritime transport. Sessions on digital technologies and robotics, the history of globalisation through the shipping container, and digital maritime humanities rounded out a week built to show students the same challenge from as many angles as possible.
Twenty eight students took part, half from EUNICoast partner universities, including West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin (ZUT, Poland), Stralsund University of Applied Sciences (HOST, Germany), Burgas Free University (BFU, Bulgaria), Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI, Slovenia), the University of the Antilles (UA, France) and Åland University of Applied Sciences (ÅUAS, Finland), and half from institutions beyond the alliance, from Germany, Hungary, Turkey, the Netherlands, Norway, Brazil, Vietnam and the United States.
Students also visited the Port 2000 container terminal, the Proxinnov robotics lab and the Maison de l'Armateur maritime history museum, took a guided tour tracing the city's postwar reconstruction as a model of sustainable port planning, and sailed the Bay of Le Havre by boat. The week closed with student oral presentations and a jury panel on what sustainable ports might look like in 2050.
The response was strongly positive. Participants rated their overall satisfaction at 4.76 out of 5, and 16 of the 17 respondents said they were highly likely to recommend the programme to colleagues. A participant from West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin (ZUT, Poland) said the robotics and digital technologies session gave them "a better understanding of the future of modern ports and the challenges they will face in the coming years." A participant from Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences (Germany) pointed to "intercultural exchange" combined with sessions that stayed "all on the topic of ports from different perspectives." A participant from Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI, Slovenia) added that a lecture on Mediterranean geopolitics "opened a new perspective on the future of ports that went beyond what any technical solution alone can address." The seven lecturers who delivered sessions were equally positive, with an average satisfaction of 4.43 out of 5.
Hear more from Ludmiła Filina-Dawidowicz (West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, ZUT, Poland) and Luka Juri (Euro-Mediterranean University, EMUNI, Slovenia) on teaching at the intersection of ports, technology and geopolitics in our companion interview.
The summer school builds on ULHN's own 2025 pilot edition and becomes a template for the alliance's mobility offer. The next edition will run at Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI, Slovenia) in Koper from 1 to 15 June 2027, on the theme "Geopolitics of Transport Between Physical and Cyberspace."
The course was hosted by Université Le Havre Normandie (ULHN), France, with students and lecturers from partner universities including West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin (ZUT), Poland; Stralsund University of Applied Sciences (HOST), Germany; Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI), Slovenia; Burgas Free University (BFU), Bulgaria; University of the Antilles (UA), France; and Åland University of Applied Sciences (ÅUAS), Finland.
