Blog: Maritime Masters - Creating continuity in a COVID-19 age

Maritime Masters


Along with Maritime UK initiatives currently in place to secure business continuity and support for  companies across the maritime sector in the face of the current outbreak of COVID-19, an important part of Maritime UK’s work is to ensure a degree of ‘business as usual’ through our programme and outreach activity. This naturally includes the Maritime Masters programme, which is currently in its third iteration.

Maritime Masters is a Maritime UK programme ran with the main aim of increasing interaction and strengthening the relationship between UK maritime industry and academia. The programme sees participation from nine of the UK’s leading maritime universities, representing a wide range of academic disciplines, from maritime law and environmental studies, to shipping business and naval architecture, to engineering and security studies. The programme provides opportunities for representatives from both industry and academia to interact, through collaboration on research, sharing of information and through networking and other events throughout the academic year. Read more about the Maritime Masters programme here.

With students spread across the country, from Strathclyde to Plymouth, Maritime UK are partnering with our programme sponsors Royal HaskoningDHV and Clarksons Platou to put on a webinar for all participating students on Thursday 23 April. The webinar, titled ‘Current trends and opportunities in maritime’, will be hosted through Maritech’s Sea/ platform, and will give the student the opportunity to gain an insight into the maritime markets and industries of today, given by experts pulled from across the sector. The webinar will feature presentations from Trevor Crowe of Clarksons, Richard Willis of Royal HaskoningDHV and Alex Grey from Maritech. While the virtual Q&A following the event will be exclusive to those students enrolled at Maritime Masters participating universities, the webinar itself will be open to the public, and registration can be accessed here.

The event provides an important function in giving students access to industry expertise, and the opportunity to ask questions and engage in discussion with experts representing various parts of the maritime sector. While not ignorant of the current situation regarding COVID-19, the webinar will largely be focused on describing the overarching trends, upcoming challenges and opportunities that the international maritime sector is facing in the future, touching upon topics such as the environment, smart technology and digitalisation.

In addition to the practical value of being able to deliver digital content, putting on a virtual event as part of this programme plays an important role in connecting students and academics, both with each other and representatives from the maritime industries in a time where it is easy to feel both disconnected and removed from the larger context of which they are all part. The maritime sector is not the only part of the economy hit by the consequences of the ongoing crisis, and universities have been forced to take measures to ensure the safety of their students. In times like these, there is all the more reason to give students a reason to feel connected, and as a part of something that will remain after the initial crisis has passed.

As the outbreak of COVID-19 has undeniably had dramatic and disruptive consequences for the maritime sector and the UK economy at large, an important part of Maritime UK’s task is to create continuity across the maritime sector and emphasise that once the initial crisis has passed, there is business as usual to get back to.