Gib University completes stage one of first home grown Masters

The first module sessions of Gibraltar’s first home grown Masters in Marine Science and Climate Change offered by the University of Gibraltar have now been completed. For the past week seven students have been engaged in a series of lectures and field trip activities looking at the course which has been entirely developed here in Gibraltar and which has been internationally recognised.
It is expected this first Masters will pave the way for other programmes into future. Developing its own postgraduate courses has been one of the main priorities in the evolution of the University and follows on from its flagship PhD programme.
Dr Darren Fa, Director of Academic Programmes and Research at the University, who is leading on this new project has run the course together with Associate Professor Ashton Berry from the University of the Seychelles.
The four days have been a mixture of seminars and lectures and has seen the involvement of Dr Liesel Torres and Stephen War from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. In the field sessions the students were also joined by Marine Biologist and teacher Dr Terence Ocana.
Dr Fa has described the sessions this past week as a “taster” introducing the students to critically analysing the subject at hand.
Professor Berry says the sessions will have enabled them to intensify their knowledge from a general level to a great many things to specify look at marine science and climate change. In the first seven courses students will study a whole range of subjects and they then will be able to specialise in their area in the research.
He explained Gibraltar and the Seychelles had been working together for a while and he himself had been creating a similar Masters for the University of the Seychelles.
“We have each developed our own but there are lots of parallels. In working together we have found that we have similar issues and it really has been a great collaboration. It is a historic moment to be able to deliver the first element of the Masters and this is fantastic,” he added.
He explained that the University and the Seychelles as a whole had benefitted from the collaboration with the Rock enormously which has set them on a path to reach international standards and accreditation.
He felt there were a lot of opportunities for both universities to work together and also research opportunities in the future.
Dr Fa said the Masters had been praised for being innovative and in trying to enhance professional development and create the link to climate change.”
“This course is important because it is the brokering of new ground, and the creation of something which is at international level and is a Postgraduate Masters Degree which has been independently assessed,” he emphasised.