The SEA-EU Joint PhD Academic Committee met on 20 and 21 June at the Faculty of Maritime Studies of the University of Split, in order to further discuss the establishment of a joint doctorate in Marine and Maritime Science and Technology, which is being developed in the framework of the SEA EU Alliance. The committee had held 10 online meetings since December 2021 and had already produced a draft framework agreement for the management of the joint PhD studies.
These productive sessions were attended by Prof. Ing. Maurice Apap, Deputy Director of the Doctoral School, and Fernanda Giraldo, Project Officer of the SEA-EU Office, as well as scholars and researchers from partner institutions such as the University of Split (which is leading the task), University of Cadiz, University of Bretagne Occidentale, NORD University, and University of Algarve. The experts shared valuable insights, provided feedback, and discussed good practices from their respective universities, covering issues such as admission requirements, curriculum design, research focus areas, student exchanges, quality assessment, and other programme structure matters. The meeting and workshop sessions held in Split led to further development of the overall management of the programme, a discussion on networking opportunities for interested academics from the partner universities to meet and team up and agree joint research areas, and further discussion on the management of student progress monitoring and professional development course offering within the programme.
It is also key to point out that the programme has been under development since the first version of the SEA-EU Alliance; therefore, it has been focused on building the most appropriate academic pathways to reveal and fill up the key remaining knowledge and capacity-building gaps. It also aims to become a reference academic and research asset, providing an excellent opportunity for our academic communities in the Alliance to foster global connections and contribute significantly to Marine and Maritime sciences.
Although there are still challenges to be resolved at future meetings, efforts are being made to ensure that the programme will be accredited in Spring 2024 and launched in September 2025.