SMA Prospectus: Introduction

Master's Degree & Interdisciplinary Study

The School of Marine Affairs has the authority to grant the Master of Marine Affairs degree, a professional degree for college graduates and mid-career government and industry officials. Students with a wide variety of educational, cultural, and work experience are encouraged to apply, so that the student body reflects the diversity and multidisciplinary interactions of the marine affairs field. Students with natural science degrees find an opportunity to learn more about the context in which science and technology are applied, while those grounded in the social sciences or professional fields can develop skills in the management of marine resource problems.

Structure of Studies

The Master of Marine Affairs degree program is a two-year graduate course requiring the completion of 50 course credits and 9 master's thesis credits. Courses address the past/present/future of marine events, marine societies and institutions, the marine environment, problem anticipation and articulation, microeconomic theory and analysis, and techniques of policy analysis. A student's first year is spent in core courses developing a comprehensive understanding of marine affairs and strengthening analytical skills. During the second year, a student takes advanced courses and seminars to develop special competence within one of the areas of concentration. In this year, each student, through the master's thesis, also plans, conducts, and reports upon independant research that contributes to the understanding and potential resolution of a marine affairs policy problem. Thesis preparation is supervised by a faculty committee with expertise both within and outside the student's field.

There is no foreign language requirement. However, marine affairs is an international discipline and students proficient in one or more foreign languages are encouraged to plan coursework and research that focus on marine activities in an appropriate foreign area.

At Sea...

The challenges facing human endeavor in the oceans increase in step with human need. As expanding technology keeps pace with population growth, people place ever greater demands upon ocean resources. Fisheries, ocean minerals, shipping lanes, and tourist destinations now are sought by large numbers of nations, businesses, and communities.

Conflicts among the oceans' users complicate this picture. Nations pursuing the same resources on the high seas may differ in political and economic goals and in the scientific knowledge upon which resource use depends. One set of users can adversely affect another, as when waste disposal damages living resources.

States sharing a common water boundary-an estuary, bay, or sound-may have to search for common ground in management philosophies and structures.

Nearer to Shore...

People and industries crowding into the coastal zone bring competing uses and values, often in advance of rational techniques for allocating scarce resources and land. Economic development along fragile coasts and estuaries can mean environmental degradation of ecologically important areas.

Nations now have greater control over ocean space two hundred miles out to sea. This requires new techniques for resolving disputes and new methods for achieving integrated planning and management of all marine resource issues.

At the School of Marine Affairs...

The School offers an internationally recognized master's degree program for launching careers in marine policy and administration. Students learn creative approaches to resolving marine problems and conflicts charting rational use of living and non-living marine resources managing human activities on the coasts, at sea, and in estuaries, wetlands, and large inland bodies of water.