Course summary

Rapid climate change and the global expansion of human activities threaten the world's oceans. How do we realistically balance development with ocean conservation in a rapidly changing climate? And how do we do this in ways that are also equitable and fair to society? Our MSc programme places you right at the forefront of the fast-paced interface between marine science and policy that deals with these sustainability challenges. As a student, the programme centres a lot with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water but our programme’s interdisciplinarity will help you find links to all SDGs. This broad programme is built around the science and policies spanning tropical to polar ecosystems, from wetlands and estuaries to the deep-sea including the abyss. You can learn how to apply marine science and knowledge to critically evaluate and enrich policies and influence how new policies can be created through science communication. You will get to learn from real-world practitioners and people with lived experiences through global case studies as well as domestic and overseas field trips. These experiences will be under the guidance of a research-active team of highly supportive and motivated university scientists with decades of experience at the science-policy interface from grassroots to international levels. The capstone of your programme is an independent marine research dissertation project. It will be designed by you and a supervisor or host on a topic of your choice. You can either conduct an internship or a placement for your dissertation, in either a desk-based, lab-based, or field-based setting. By the end of your programme, you will be highly equipped with a portfolio of skills employers are looking for and that will support a future academic PhD career, including:

• policy analysis

• applied marine scientific survey and social science skills

• science communication

• marine biology

• physical oceanography

• international development

• social and political science

• geography

• law

• science communication