M.Sc. Applied Oceanography

The Oceanography Malta Research Group (Department of Geosciences) offers a M.Sc. in Applied Oceanography, open to both local and foreign students.

Course Co-ordinator: Prof. Alan Deidun
Contact: WhatsApp: +356 9974 7657; Landline: +356 2340 3704; Email

AquaBioTech Group and Deltares are partners in the delivery of this course.

Who should apply?

The course is tailor-made for postgraduate students with a first degree in science, geography, earth systems, environmental studies, engineering, architecture or computing as well as to mid-career professionals aiming to supplement their background with a grounding in Oceanography and in marine and maritime studies and willing to augment their academic portfolio with a new suite of capabilities.

The proposed Course is tailor-made for participants aspiring to join several streams of expertise and jobs, amongst others:

Environmental management of coastal/marine resources
Policy-making and governance
Marine Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and specialized analysis of environmental scenarios
Marine-related operational activities such as in surveying, surveillance, search & rescue, marine transportation, etc.
Environmental monitoring
Research fields in oceanography
Numerical modeling of the marine environment
Data mining, management, quality control and archival
Marine observations and forecasting.

Course rationale

The course builds on the context and direction provided by the current policy landscape:

which all stress the need for greater capacity-building so as to nurture a new generation of professionals endowed with a novel multi-disciplinary set of skills.

The course is intended to train post-graduate students and professionals on state-of-the-art methodologies and tools to measure, understand and predict the marine environment, and derive sustained benefits from the sea. It is elaborated over a course programme spanning and merging the scientific, technical and applicative aspects of oceanography to offer students a wide-ranging integrated approach, linking science to management, putting technology at the service of users and stakeholders, and providing tools and training for more efficient service-oriented applications.

Targeted areas of such applications include: environmental monitoring and surveillance, assessment and mitigation of risks, marine science-based policy development and strategic planning, climate change, sustainable resource exploitation, ocean governance, marine industries and service provision, and the overall empowerment of human resources to face current and emerging challenges in the marine domain.

Image showing benthic corers, Niskin bottle, Secchi disc and conductivity, temperature and depth probes

Course highlights

Short study visit abroad (first semester) to one of the European University of the Seas oceanography training facilities.
Deployment of oceanographic instruments at sea (first semester). These include:
- - A Secchi disc
  - A Niskin bottle
  - A Conductivity, Temperature and Depth probe (CTD)
  - Benthic corers
A week-long bootcamp (second semester) featuring a field (aboard a support vessel) investigation and monitoring of a selected phenomenon (e.g. within Maltese coastal waters involving the use of the following equipment held by the Oceanography Malta Research Group:
- - Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV)
  - Benthic grab
  - Towed side-scan sonar
  - Surface drifters
  - Water temperature loggers
A week-long placement/internship within a local relevant private or public enterprise
Focus on communication skills through exposure to local media personalities.

Image shows a benthic grab, temperature logger, towed side-scan sonar, remotely-operated vehicle and coastal and open water drifters

The course is delivered by a diverse, complementary faculty consisting of acclaimed academics from different Faculties at the University of Malta as well as from foreign Universities and research institutes. The Course’s core lecturers are:

Course partners

Deltares (Netherlands) and AquaBioTech Limitied (Malta) are two international marine research companies and service providers that have joined the Oceanography Malta Research Group to raise the international profile of the MSc in Applied Oceanography. They both offer their expertise in the academic delivery of the course, and host interested and selected students enrolled in the course to do their research dissertation with them as an internship. AquaBioTech Limited also offers a scholarship.

What do our students THINK?

There is an interesting article about the course on THINK magazine (Issue 42 pages 42-45) - Deep Dive into a Sea of Wonders.