Why study Marine Systems and Policies at Edinburgh?
- Our unique programme enables you to truly embrace the integrated approach needed to tackle the complex issues facing our oceans.
- Our innovative programme is taught by world-leading experts in key fields of marine science and policy.
- Our links with a variety of organisations including local government, industry and academia ensure our students have access to employers and decision-makers for employment opportunities or collaboration on dissertation research projects.
- You'll benefit from the University's collaborative partnership with St. Abbs Marine Stations. In addition to local trips run through the programme, our parternship with St. Abbs provides you with opportunities to undertake your dissertation research project.
- The MSc Marine Systems and Policies is associated with the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI), bringing together law, business, social science, technology and policy experts to develop a low-carbon society.
- We offer you an exciting ocean hub community, visit the website to learn more about ocean research across the University: Edinburgh Oceans
Online Information Session
Watch the recording of our online Information Session (19th Feb), hosted by Programme Director Professor J. Murray Roberts.
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Pre-arrival reading list
Your courses
This MSc programme comprises:
- 4 compulsory and 2 option courses
- dissertation
Our compulsory courses cover foundations in marine ecosystem science and the policies and institutions in place to protect them.
Additionally, they cover field skills in scientific and social surveys, climate science and climate policy, marine conservation and sustainable use.
You can find out more about compulsory and optional courses on the Degree Programme Tables (DPTs). Please note that the information on the current DPTs is for academic year 2024-25 and is subject to change in future years. The DPTs for academic year 2025-26 will be published in April 2025.
Read more about selecting optional courses on the applicant website.
Your dissertation
Summer dissertations are the capstone of our programme. Students choose their own topic, and projects can be entirely desk-based, field-based, or a mixture.
Topics range across a very broad spectrum from environmental humanities, to marine technologies, to legal and governance challenges.
Some examples of past titles include:
- The rights of Southern Resident killer whales.
- Pilot study on the use of drones to study humpback whales in Iceland.
- Threats from illegal fishing and capacity for enforcement in Indonesia.
- Using baited remote underwater vehicle systems to study the distribution and diversity of sharks in South Africa.
Every student has a project supervisor, and many students conduct these projects with governments, NGOs, industries, and even organisations from all over the world.
Where will you be taught?
During semester time (September to April), the majority of teaching for the MSc Marine Systems and Policies programme takes place in our beautiful Central campus. Many of the classes will be located in the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI).
Depending on the option courses you choose, you may study at various campus locations in Edinburgh, including the King's Buildings campus. Some of your weekly optional events, such as "Breakfast Briefings," where students talk about an ocean or conservation policy of their choice, are likely to take place there.
You may have some workshops and optional courses on our other campuses, and student shuttle buses run between sites.
Off-campus, we also teach on site at field stations, e.g., the St. Abbs Marine Station, and overseas, e.g., during our Maldives field course in the South Ari Atoll.
Student publications
Many of our students win prizes and publish their dissertation research in peer-reviewed journals. We are happy to mentor you in these aspects.
Here are some example titles of papers our students (*) have published from their MSc dissertation research in just the last 3 years:
*Hughes, A., Bonačić, K., Cameron, T., Collins, K., da Costa, F., Debney, A. et al. (2023) Site selection for European native oyster (Ostrea edulis) habitat restoration projects: An expert-derived consensus. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 2023: 1-16
*Hammer AJ, Millar CM, Hennige SJ (2022) Reducing carbon emissions in aquaculture: using carbon disclosures to identify unbalanced mitigation strategies. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 96: 106816
*Narganes Homfeldt T, Risch D, Stevenson A, Henry L-A (2022) Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda. Frontiers in Marine Science 9: 941793
*Arnull J, Wilson A, Brayne K, Dexter K, Donah A, Gough C, Klückow T, Ngwenya B, Tudhope A (2021) Ecological co-benefits from sea cucumber farming: Holothuria scabra increases growth rate of seagrass. Aquaculture Environment Interactions 13: 301-310
Field trips/excursions
A memorable part of our programme is our overseas 2 week residential field course to the Maldives. We would highly recommend watching the video above which was created by our students in the Maldives, so you can learn about research opportunities for your dissertation if you decide to conduct your project over the summer term.
We also offer voluntary field trips in Scotland to experience a variety of marine settings at no extra cost. These include trips to the Berwickshire Marine Reserve, where we have a collaborative partnership with St. Abbs Marine Station. In the past, we have also had residential field trips to the Firth of Lorn Marine Protected Area, day trips to the Scottish Seabird Centre and even the Dynamic Earth Science Centre in Edinburgh.
There are no additional charges for compulsory field trips.
Seeking to understand our oceans
Future of your subject
Interdisciplinary working is more important than ever in the new era of global climate change alongside human activities going further and deeper into the oceans, and calls for social justice and inequity to end. Our programme introduces you to thinking and working across these domains, an attribute that employers of our graduates celebrate. The experience you will gain will make you a stronger scientist, a more holistic, reflective and critical thinker, and an improved communicator, while helping you to find your path to working on solutions in this fast-moving front.
Scholarships
School of GeoSciences scholarships
Scholarships and student funding
You can find funding opportunities, tuition fees and costs of living for prospective UK and international postgraduate students on the University website.
You are also encouraged to undertake your own research into the range of potential scholarships and other funding outside the University for which you may be eligible.
Careers
We are proud of our graduates, and many have gone on to jobs in government, NGOs, industry and academia around the world.
Some examples include:
- World Wide Fund for Nature
- Global Fishing Watch
- Blue Ventures
- Blue Marine Foundation
- United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee
- Coral Cay Conservation Philippines
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps USA
- Royal Society for the Protection of Nature Scotland
- International Union for the Conservation of Nature
- Pew Foundation
Alumni
We have a thriving global network of alumni living and working around the world. As well as individual MSc programme networks, the School of GeoSciences has a large alumni network, which you can join after graduation. You'll have the opportunity to engage with and learn from like minded individuals who can offer advice about shaping your career path.
You can read our alumni profiles to find out more about our graduates experiences throughout their studies and beyond on our website.
If you prefer to watch a video, you can watch our alumni interviews on YouTube:
Your programme director and cohort lead
Find out more about your programme director and cohort lead.
Professor J Murray Roberts
The programme director for the MSc Marine Systems and Policies programme is J Murray Roberts, Professor of Applied Marine Biology & Ecology at the University of Edinburgh. He founded Edinburgh’s Changing Oceans research group, chairs the Joint Working Group between St Abbs Marine Station and the University and led the EU Atlantic research programmes ATLAS (2016-20) and iAtlantic (2019-24). In 2022 was appointed a Sargasso Sea Commissioner and member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council to government. He studies marine ecosystems in a changing ocean focussing upon structural habitats such as cold-water corals in the deep ocean. He has published over 100 peer reviewed publications, is senior author of the textbook ‘Cold-water Corals’, a contributing author to the 2014 and 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports and consultant to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, amongst others. His fieldwork has taken him to sites off the UK, Norway, Ireland, the SE United States, Cape Verde off West Africa and the Pitcairn islands in the South Pacific.
Before moving to Edinburgh University Roberts was appointed Reader and then Professor of Marine Biology and Director of the Centre for Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (2009-16) where he coordinated the development of the Lyell Centre (2012-15). Before this he was based at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (1997-2009) with a period as Marie Curie Fellow at the Center for Marine Science, University North Carolina Wilmington in the USA (2007-09).
Dr. Lea-Anne Henry
The Cohort Lead for this programme is Lea-Anne Henry. Lea-Anne is a marine ecologist with >25 years of research expertise on the impacts of human activities and climate change on marine ecosystems. She specialises in the ecology of deep-sea ecosystems including seamounts, their conservation, and sustainable use.
Under the auspices of global multilateral environmental agreements, Lea-Anne works with national and international policy-makers and authorities on the identification and designation of marine protected areas (MPAs) and Ecologically or Biologically Significant marine Areas (EBSAs).
She has long-established industry networks with the offshore energy and aquaculture sectors and acts on several international working groups providing fisheries and offshore energy advice.
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