News: Maritime UK announces Maritime Masters finalists ahead of 15 October event


Maritime UK has announced the names of the nine student finalists chosen to represent their universities at the upcoming Maritime Masters competition final on Thursday 15 October.

The event, this year organised as a part of Maritime UK Week, will see student finalists presenting their research to an audience of industry representatives and peers and one of the finalists will be voted the winner through a live vote. Previous winners of the competition have included Tessa Jones from Queen Mary, University of London and Jordan Curtis from the University of Strathclyde.

The Maritime Masters programme run by Maritime UK and sponsored by Royal HaskoningDHV and Clarksons Platou aims to increase the interaction between the UK’s maritime industries and academia. Running throughout the academic year, the programme offers students the opportunity to engage with industry through a range of events and the process of ‘student adoption’ where industry representatives provide insights into relevant parts of the maritime sector. Towards the end of the academic year, each of the participating universities submit a shortlist of selected from students from which the finalist is eventually chosen. Participating students are drawn from a range of academic disciplines ranging from business studies and law to engineering, naval architecture and environmental studies.

Due to government restrictions surrounding Covid-19 and social distancing guidelines in place, this year’s final is hosted as a live-streamed event. The finalist event is open for registration for all here.

Ahead of the event, a virtual event stand has been created to allow audiences to familiarise themselves with the range of topics which will be presented on the day – the virtual stand can be seen here.

The 2020 finalists are as follows:

Ben Murray, Director of Maritime UK said:

"With the COVID-19 pandemic having presented tremendous challenges for students and their universities as well as industry, we’re really pleased that we’ve been able to push ahead with the Maritime Masters programme. It’s always been a priority for this programme to bring academia and industry closer together and working closety throughout such difficult times can only have forged some strong and purposeful relationships that will serve our sector well into the future. 

"We’re excited to be live streaming the finalist reception as part of Maritime UK Week, meaning that we’ll be able to share the students’ first-class research with an even bigger industry audience. Good luck to everyone!"

Ben Challier, Business Development Director for Aviation and Maritime at Royal HaskoningDHV said:

“It is a privilege for Royal HaskoningDHV to be playing a part in such a worthwhile programme. We see it as our duty to support schemes like Maritime UK’s Maritime Masters programme that safeguards the future of the industry by bringing through the next generation. For example, recently we have provided insight into port operations and ferry traffic management to student studies into post-Brexit industry challenges, which is being actively tackled by our clients in 2020.

"With COVID-19, this year has brought a huge amount of additional challenges to students and we are therefore excited to be supporting the shortlisted students by sharing our knowledge on the challenges the maritime industry is facing to help them shape targeted research around those topics.”

L&D Advisor at Clarksons Platou Malcolm Willingale added:

"The Maritime Masters competition is an important building block in establishing a bridge between industry and academia. Clarksons is keen to continue its sponsorship of the programme and provide help to the competitors' research projects."