Oceanography (120 ECTS)

Special access conditions

• Are you a Belgian student with a degree awarded in Belgium? Please find information about official requirements in the French version of this page.
• You are a E.U citizen and hold a diploma awarded outside Belgium and you wish to apply for a master's degree, please find more information about the procedure on this page.
• You are a non E.U citizen and hold a diploma awarded outside Belgium and you wish to apply for a master's degree, please find more information about the procedure on this page.

Profile and prerequisites

Profile

The University of Liège is the only university in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation that offers a Master's in Oceanography. At the end of the programme, graduates will have acquired solid theoretical and practical foundations that enable them to study, analyse and understand the marine environment and its interactions with the land and atmospheric environments.

The joint first year programme is interdisciplinary and offers a wide range of subjects within the various fields of oceanography (physical, chemical, geological, pelagic, coastal, biological and satellite oceanography, etc.), economics and law (law of the sea, economics of the sea), environmental study and modelling (mathematical methods and modelling applied to the environment, coastal geomorphology, marine ecology, etc.) and the use of oceanographic databases. These theoretical concepts are studied in greater depth and tested against real situations during practical lab work and a two-week fieldwork placement at the Undersea and Oceanographic Research Station.

(STARESO in Calvi, Corsica).

The second year offers two specialisms: "Oceanography" or "Modelling the Marine Environment". Each specialism leads to the preparation of a Final Dissertation and allows for  a morein-depth scientific education (electives, scientific documentation) in a field linked directly to one of the two specialisms chosen by the student.

• an avid interest in the marine and ocean environments;
• a demonstrated affinity for observation and comprehension of marine natural phenomena, an openness to the world and an understanding of contemporary phenomena;
• an appreciation of nature and foreign travel;
• a minimum level of physical fitness for field trips on oceanographic boats in varied weather conditions and for potentially doing some deep-sea diving;
• the ability to adapt to conditions of isolation and lack of comfort and sometimes unfamiliar food and ways of life (stays at sea, research stations, etc.).

Subject area prerequisites

• A good knowledge of English;
• Strong skills and knowledge gained during your Bachelor's programme in science, applied science or other higher education course (see entry requirements).
• Ideally, a solid scientific background (physics, chemistry, biology, geology) and mathematics.