“It was a great opportunity to start building relationships with our peers pursuing careers in the field of oceanography.”
These are some of the comments made by University of Malta students who attended an intensive week of practical sessions, involving Marine Data, at the University of Split between Sunday 3 December and Saturday 9 December.
This activity was organised within the Short Course on Marine Data Literacy (SEA-EU MDL), which is offered by the European University of the Seas (SEA-EU). The entire student cohort currently following the M.Sc. in Applied Oceanography Course at the University of Malta attended.
The SEA-EU MDL Course is an intensive course aimed at acquainting students with the domain of marine data, as well as the tools available to transform it into information and knowledge about our seas. The course is coordinated by a Board of Studies made up of representatives of the universities making up the SEA-EU Alliance, and open to students from all over the alliance and beyond.
SEA-EU MDL is offered as a Blended Intensive Programme. This year, the virtual element of the course consisted of a series of 10 introductory lectures delivered by Academics from universities in the SEA-EU alliance, as well as representatives of the Decade Coordination Office, International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-IODE) and the European Marine Observation Data Network (EMODnet).
The practical sessions were held in person in Split. Academics from the University of Split, the University of Gdansk, the University of Cádiz, the University of Algarve and Dr Adam Gauci from the University of Malta, delivered the practical sessions. Ms Audrey Zammit from the Oceanography Malta Research Group (OMRG) of the Department of Geosciences accompanied Dr Gauci on the trip to Split. 55 students, from 6 SEA-EU universities, completed the course successfully.
The programme followed at the University of Split was very hectic, with an extensive practical session being held each day. Various social activities were also included which gave the students and academics an opportunity to mingle and share experiences and ideas. The highlights of the programme were a guided tour of Split and a field trip to Krka River and Ĺ ibenik.
The SEA-EU MDL course is part of the Erasmus+ Project, the European University of the Seas (SEA-EU). Prof. Alan Deidun (Resident Academic within the Geosciences Department) is Rector’s Delegate for SEA-EU and coordinates the M.Sc. in Applied Oceanography course.
