International Master of Science in Marine Biological Resources (Management of Living Marine Resources)
This master covers a wide, yet consistent, range of subjects related to the sustainable use of marine biological resources. With an emphasis on marine biological and ecological processes, the programme links biology of marine organisms and environmental studies with subjects in marine policy and planning.
What
The International Master in Marine Biological Resources (IMBRSea), is a joint Master’s programme organized by ten leading European universities in the field of marine sciences; Ghent University (BE), Sorbonne Université (FR), Université Côte d’Azur (FR), University of the Algarve (PT), University of Oviedo (ES), Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (IE), University of the Basque Country (ES), Polytechnic University of Marche (IT), University of Bergen (NO), and Université de Bretagne Occidentale (FR). It is supported by fourteen Marine Research Institutes belonging to the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC).
Based on the objectives of the EMBRC consortium, IMBRSea covers a wide, yet consistent, range of subjects related to the sustainable use of marine biological resources. With an emphasis on marine biological and ecological processes, the programme links biology of marine organisms and environmental studies with subjects in marine policy and planning.
For whom
The admission requirements vary. Depending on your prior education, you are either able to enrol directly, or there are additional requirements.
Structure
IMBRSea is a two-year, 120 ECTS study programme that starts with a first semester of courses within the fundamental modules in which students gain the core competences required for starting any of the five specialization tracks of the programme. This first semester is offered by Ghent University, University of the Algarve, Université de Bretagne Occidentale and University of Oviedo. During the second and the third semester, the students follow two thematic modules, leading to one of the five specialization tracks are defined according to the EU Horizon2020 Blue Growth innovation challenges:
- Marine food production led by Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, University of the Basque Country, University of the Algarve, University of Bergen;
- Management of living marine resources led by University of Oviedo, University of the Algarve, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, University of Bergen;
- Applied marine ecology and conservation led by Ghent University, Polytechnic University of Marche, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Sorbonne Université, University of Bergen;
- Marine environment health led by Polytechnic University of Marche, University of the Basque Country, University of the Algarve and Sorbonne Université;
- Global ocean change led by Sorbonne Université, Ghent University and University of Bergen.
IMBRSea offers, besides a wide variety of courses in the thematic modules, also a series of jointly developed activities. In the second half of the second semester, students will gain authentic experience during six weeks of professional practice offered by potential future employers.
During a joint school students from the same cohort will come together for programme-wide training on multi-disciplinary topics. During the last semester students have the opportunity to develop an individual thesis research project, tailored to their personal interests.
This research project is presented on the IMBRSea Annual Symposium which unites both first and second year students, as well as future employers and interested stakeholders.
Programme mobility
The students will live and study in at least two European cities and will receive a Joint degree signed by the ten European universities. Students will choose in the first year among four universities – Ghent, Algarve, Bretagne Occidentale and Oviedo – which are offering in the first semester mainly the basic multidisciplinary courses. From the second semester onwards, students choose from one of the five specialisation tracks. In the second and third semester, they follow two thematic modules. All students undertake their thesis work during the fourth semester, at one of the IMBRSea partners or members of the consortium.
Labour Market
The EU-Marine Strategy provides an integrated framework for analysing relevant community policies’ contributions to the protection of and the impact on the marine environment. This EU-Strategy is the basis for the national European authorities and policies at the one hand and is the basis for debate at the global scale regarding policies for Nature protection and Conservation in general. The IMBRsea masters will be well trained to operate immediately within these policy environments. Most of them will use this master as a basis for PhD research. Masters and post-docs specialised in marine biological resources can help in the implementation of the strategies for future sustainable use of the natural marine resources taking into account the natural ecological background of the ecosystems. The added value for IMBRsea masters will be that they can operate on a global scale since there is no restriction in the programme regarding types of biotopes (going from the coast to the deep sea and from poles to poles).
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- The International Master of Science in Marine Biological Resources (IMBRSea) is the largest international marine Master programme globally. It’s a flagship educational programme, closely linked to the EMBRC Research Infrastructure, and of national and pan-European strategic and societal importance in marine biology, including biodiversity and ecosystem function, biogeochemistry and global change, marine products and resources.
- The programme merges two fields of sciences traditionally separated: biology of marine organisms and environmental studies with subjects in marine policy and planning. The integrated and interdisciplinary approach and research on the sustainable use of marine biological resources prepares students for the rapidly evolving demands and challenges (e.g. climate change) of the blue bioeconomy.
- The diverse student population (more than 53 different nationalities) constructs an individual curriculum by choosing one of the five specialization tracks: Marine food production, Management of living marine resources, Applied marine ecology and conservation, Marine environment health and Global ocean change. In each track, students can choose between several universities offering a set of courses fitting to their personal interests and aligned with their future employment prospect.
- IMBRSea offers innovative (online) training and guidance, including transferable skills (e.g. scientific diving, digital photography, etc.), presentations at symposia and internships in industry. Through mandatory mobility, students learn to critically reflect on the geographic and socio-cultural/economic and professional environments of different universities.
- Graduates from the programme are flexible, competitive and integrative workforces who experienced different learning environments (e.g. site visits at NGO’s, internships in industry, etc.). By extensive practical and laboratory training and career development, they have been exposed to different ecosystems, cultures and languages so they are able to tackle holistic ocean issues.
Strengths
- The programme (since 2008 - EMBC) already passed several accreditations and integrated the recommendations from these accreditations in the design of the renewed version of the programme (IMBRSea) in 2017. This programme was co-designed by nine Universities and takes into account the needs of the dynamic industry, on an extensive profile study of graduates and on surveys with stakeholders.
- A quality assurance committee monitors the programme offered by the nine leading European partner universities in the field of marine sciences. Several governing bodies meet regularly and the coordination office (located at Ghent University) is responsible for the daily operation and communication. The programme uses a cyclical process of review and evaluation (e.g. annual SWOT-analysis) and validates the formal and informal feedback they receive from all stakeholders.
- The programme uses a variety of student-activating teaching (e.g. YouTube channel with MOOC’s, training portal, flipped classroom, etc.) and transparent evaluation practices (e.g. peer-to-peer evaluation, portfolio, etc.). Entrepreneurship, participation, critical awareness and creativity are encouraged and students are guided in achieving the learning outcomes (e.g. through webinars with FAQ) while closely monitoring the study load.
- There is a strong collaboration with a broad network of partners in academia, policy and industry; supported by a large network of Marine Research Institutes (for example the EMBRC research infrastructure – www.embrc.eu) that offer multi- and cross-disciplinary sea-going practical training and authentic experiences for students.
- The programme has a very high success rate (e.g. 97% of the students graduate in two years (AJ 2016-17)). Through mobility of students and (guest)lecturers and at the annual job fair students meet alumni and industry and build international networks. Alumni keep in touch through social media (Facebook and LinkedIn) and the website. Graduates are competitive in industry, government and research (e.g. between 25 à 30% of all master dissertations are published).
Challenges
- The programme aims at increasing the number of partner universities, teachers mobility and further develop with all stakeholders a joint vision on assessment (e.g. interim feedback, criteria) and strategy to communicate the vision and learning outcomes publically.
- The (growing number of) students will continue to participate in local communities and economies through internships and thesis research placements. This will further promote collaborative and cross-disciplinary approaches and networking experiences.
- The programme aspires to design the roadmap for marine education and training by further developing and implementing online tools to recruit, select and guide students in tailored study pathways, to co-create an innovative learning path for online thesis preparation and to develop teasers of lectures for wider audiences. These innovations will be evaluated in educational research projects.
This study programme is accredited by Accreditation Organization of the Netherlands and Flanders (in Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022.
This information was last updated on 23/04/2018.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.