Undergraduate · Environmental Science
Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science
University of Tasmania, Hobart/Launceston, TAS, Australia
About this program
The Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science is the only degree of its kind in Australia, and geography does most of the selling: Hobart sits closer to Antarctica than any other Australian capital, is home port to the CSIRO and Australian Antarctic Division research fleet, and hosts the university's own Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) on the Taroona waterfront, where undergraduates take classes alongside researchers actively publishing on Southern Ocean ecosystems rather than in a department that merely teaches about them secondhand.
The standard course is three years full-time, with a four-year embedded honours pathway for students who want a research year before going further. IMAS deliberately blends natural science with policy, management and law content, on the reasoning that marine and Antarctic science graduates increasingly need to operate in fisheries management, conservation policy and international Antarctic governance as much as in a lab, so the degree doesn't confine students to a single-discipline science track.
Graduates go into fisheries and marine park management, Antarctic and Southern Ocean research support roles, environmental consultancy and government science agencies. It's a smaller, more specialised job market than most science degrees feed into, but one where a Tasmanian marine science credential carries specific recognition given the concentration of relevant employers within a short drive of the university itself.
Cost & duration
English test scores
Course structure
4 terms of coursework
- Year 1: Introduction to Marine and Antarctic Science, Chemistry and Biology foundations, Earth Systems Science, Mathematics for science
- Year 2: Oceanography, Marine Ecology, Antarctic Environments, Marine and Antarctic Policy and Law
- Year 3: specialisation units (fisheries, marine biology, glaciology or policy stream), field trip and vessel-based practical units, capstone research project
- (optional Year 4: embedded Honours research thesis)
Admissions
Completion of Australian Year 12 (or equivalent) with satisfactory results in English and a science subject; ATAR of approximately 70 recommended