International Master of Science in Marine Biological Resources
The Marine Biological Resources programme covers a wide, yet consistent, range of subjects within the marine sciences and biological resources. With an emphasis on marine biological and ecological processes, the programme links biology of marine organisms and environmental studies with application in marine conservation, management, policy and planning.
What
The International Master in Marine Biological Resources (IMBRSea), is a joint Master's programme organised by leading European universities in the field of marine sciences. It is supported by the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC). IMBRSea covers a wide, yet consistent, range of subjects within the marine sciences and biological resources. With an emphasis on marine biological and ecological processes, the programme links biology of marine organisms and environmental studies with application in marine conservation, management, policy and planning. The programme prepares students for the rapidly evolving demands of the blue bio-economy and research on the sustainable use of marine biological resources.
For whom
The admission requirements vary. Depending on your prior education, you are either able to enrol directly, or there are additional requirements.
Structure
The IMBRSea curriculum is packed with activities. In the first term, students go to one of six universities where they take the Fundamental Module (each university offers similar common basic course units). This first term is offered by Ghent University (BE), the University of Algarve (PT), the University of Oviedo (ES), the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (IE), the Polytechnic University of Marche (IT) and the University of Western Brittany (FR).
In the second term, students take Thematic Modules and Professional Practices. They choose their course units and compete for various positions offered by our partners for the Professional Practice.
There is also a Summer School (end of July – August) where students have a full research experience at the Tjärnö Marine Station in Sweden.
In the third term students get the chance to follow Specialisation Tracks at different universities. Those are tailored to the current job opportunities for marine scientists in Europe. They also have an online course unit preparing them for their Master's dissertation.
In the fourth and last term, students pursue their own research for their Master's dissertation. They can conduct this research anywhere in the world. At the end of each academic year in June, first- and second-year students attend a symposium to present their Professional Practice and Master's dissertation. It is an interesting opportunity to meet and interact with all IMBRSea students and staff. Each year the symposium takes place at a different partner university.
Student Mobility
Our students live and study in at least two European cities and receive a Joint degree signed by the eleven European universities of the IMBRSea Consortium. The modules are offered at different universities and each term students will have the opportunity to study at a different university. Moreover, students will perform their Professional Practice at one of our partner institutions and undertake their thesis work at one of the IMBRSea partners or members of the consortium or at any other research institute, located all over the world. The amount of different mobility options is one of the great advantages of IMBRSea, allowing students to experience many different realities and meeting people from different institutes, forming a strong network and creating a more global-minded work force.
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 on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also informs the global debate regarding policies for Nature protection and Conservation in general. IMBRSea graduates are well-trained to operate immediately within these policy environments. Most of them will use this Master’s degree as a stepping stone to 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 graduates is 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). Jobs in the academic, governmental, non-governmental, environmental, aquaculture and many more sectors will benefit from Marine Scientists with an IMBRSea diploma.
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 the 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.