ABOUT THE COURSE

Is it time to take your maritime career to the next level? This two year distance learning programme is ideally suited to maritime professionals who are hoping to move into shore-based management positions. You’ll learn specialist skills in ship safety management and shipping operations, solving complex problems during challenging workplace assignments.

This postgraduate programme is delivered online using University’s virtual learning environment, a web based platform that is accessible from anywhere in the world.

Students learn as part of an online community of tutors, fellow students and student support services - just as they would if they went to the University itself. Each student has their own dedicated academic tutor and study partner, and studying online is made interesting, interactive, and engaging by forums, wikis, reflective journals and video presentations. Shipping industry experts are involved in the mentoring of work-based projects, further enhancing the value of student learning.

Core Modules

• International Maritime Context
  This module is particularly designed to engage students in developing their skills of critical evaluation and evidenced argument (complementing work in the parallel study skills module) by starting from the student’s own experience and encouraging consideration and questioning of that experience from different perspectives.

• Postgraduate and Self-managed Study
  This module is specifically designed for working professionals who, while perhaps very senior and experienced in their own fields, have little familiarity with the demands and expectations of Higher Education (at postgraduate level in particular) and may be returning to education after a long gap.

• Business Research Skills
  The module is intended to deliver a fuller understanding of the skills and attributes of postgraduate study.

• Professional Skills and Practice Portfolio
  This module provides the opportunity to create an evidence-based portfolio that illustrates how a student’s existing professional skills and their prior experiential learning shape practice and allow them to operate effectively in their present role.

• Project
  The Project is the culmination of studies for the MSc and enables students to draw together their learning from other elements of the course, including their specialised option strand, and to apply this to in-depth research and investigation of a self-generated topic within their workplace.

Specialised modules

• Risk and Safety Management
  This module is one of the four comprising the Risk and Safety Management optional strand within the MSc Shipping Operations. The principal intention of the module is to consider and critically evaluate a range of theories and methodologies of risk and safety management and their implications for the management of shipping operations.

• Legal Process
  As part of the risk and safety management strand, this module is concerned with the legal aspects of safety processes and how these impact upon individuals and organisations within the international maritime industries, including issues of jurisdiction and individual and corporate liability.

• Safety Culture
  As part of the risk and safety optional strand, this module critically explores the concept of a safety culture within the context of maritime sector requirements.

• Accident Investigation and Organisational Learning
  As part of the risk and safety management optional strand, this module critically explores accident investigation and organisational learning within the context of maritime sector requirements.

Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.

English Language Requirements

Applicants who do not have English as their first language will be required to demonstrate an approved level of proficiency in the use of the English language. The agreed minimum requirements for this course are:

• IELTS 6.5 with no component score below 5.5

• TOEFL IBT 92 with a minimum of 22 in writing and a minimum of 19 in reading, listening, and speaking

• Duolingo English Language Test - 110 overall with a minimum 90 in each component

• or equivalent.

Qualifications are checked before enrolment, and international students must bring their original certificates or certified copies when coming to study at the University.