Marine Engineering Courses overview
Marine engineers design the components of maritime equipment, from valves and propulsion systems to entire submarines or ships. It’s a profession valuable in multiple industries, including oil, gas and the military. Postgraduate study provides students with exceptional choice in specific areas of marine engineering, with the chance to learn about advanced vibrations, electric energy systems, combustion technology and emissions control, robotics, mechatronics and more.
The great Archimedes of Syracuse is commonly credited to be first among marine engineers in the 3rd century BCE. It took centuries for others to follow him; a blacksmith by the name of Thomas Newcomen created the first steam powered engine in 1712 CE. The industrial revolution to follow heralded a great influx of new technology and components that were later used in marine enterprise.
Modern marine engineers are highly skilled in what they do, building off the extensive knowledge of the past. They seek to constantly innovate and develop upon existing technology to become increasingly more efficient and productive.
Is marine engineering for me?
Like all engineering disciplines, marine engineering requires a combination of creative problem solving and mathematical proficiency to succeed. Practitioners need the ability to retain a great deal of physics knowledge in addition to these. If you’re skilled in a number of quantitative disciplines and want a way to productively harness your abilities, marine engineering could well be for you.
Study pathway
Marine engineering can be taken all the way up to PhD level. Graduate certificates, diplomas and master degrees are all available.
Graduate certificates from institutions like the University of Adelaide take six months of full time study to complete, or a year part time. They are accessible only to students who’ve graduated with a previous four year engineering degree, as they build significantly on prior knowledge. Students can expect to learn about fundamentals such as submarine design and systems engineering over the course of these programs.
Graduate diplomas take twice as long at one year of full time study or two years part time. They cover similar material to graduate certificates with the added benefit of more elective content. As an example, the University of Tasmania offers units in marine propulsion systems, principles of naval architecture, advanced maritime engineering analysis and more. This makes them an excellent way to become more acquainted with the field. A four year bachelor of engineering is required at a minimum for entry.
Master degrees provide a high extent of maritime engineering knowledge, taking two years of full time study or four years part time to complete. The aforementioned institutions and others offer these to those who’ve completed an engineering degree. Students can expect to learn similar content to that found in a graduate diploma, only with the added benefit of additional electives and a research project. This project makes up a significant portion of the degree, allowing students to explore an area of their interest.
A PhD in maritime engineering is the highest level postgraduate qualification possible, taking three years of full time study to complete or up to eight years part time. These programs are based on the assumption that applicants have extensive knowledge to begin with, requiring one of the following:
- A bachelor of engineering with at least second-class honours
- A Master of Marine Engineering in either research or coursework
- An equivalent qualification deemed sufficient by the institution’s engineering faculty
These courses are comprised of supervised research, focussing instead on making a meaningful contribution to the field rather than learning more fundamentals. This makes them ideal for a career in academia and potentially making valuable contributions to marine engineering that will be utilised in the profession.
Employment options
Marine engineers serve a variety of purposes. Companies like Maritime Engineers and MG Engineeringtend to have oil and gas divisions, which assist in mineral extraction as well. They also utilise their engineers for naval surveys, testing the structural integrity of military hulls in addition to designing and building ships from scratch. These skills are also applied to the fishing industry, with MG Engineering in particular being renowned for building high quality commercial fishing vessels. The versatility of a marine engineering qualification cannot be understated; the career opportunities are diverse.