University College of Southeast Norway
PhD in Nautical Operations – Joint Degree
PhD
DURATION
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Aug 2025
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
About the programme
The National Joint PhD Programme in Nautical Operations is organised as a joint degree between the following four national higher education institutions offering professional maritime education:
- Universtity of Tromsø - The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)
- University of South-Eastern Norway (USN)
- Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
The National Joint PhD Programme in Nautical Operations will educate qualified candidates for research, teaching, dissemination and innovation work, and other activities requiring scientific insight and an operational maritime focus.
Implementation of complex nautical operations today requires interdisciplinarity and differentiated competence, including research expertise, for the safe and efficient planning, implementation and evaluation of nautical operations.
The programme has the following vision: to create an internationally recognized national PhD degree in nautical operations.
This vision will be achieved through the following overall objectives:
- Strengthen the multidisciplinary national expertise in nautical operations through collaboration between the four higher education institutions in Norway with professional maritime education.
- The PhD Programme in Nautical Operations is the preferred Programme in the field and attracts good applicants nationally and internationally from major maritime nations.
- Individuals graduating from the Programme are in demand both nationally and internationally because they have a strong and relevant research-based expertise and the ability to innovate and adapt.
- Increase value creation and innovation through close cooperation between academia, maritime industry and public sector.
- The multidisciplinary national competence related to nautical operations constitutes an internationally recognised professional environment that sets the terms for the development of knowledge in the field.
Academic content
Nautical operations consist of two subject areas:
- Nautical studies that include navigation, maneuvering and transport of floating craft, and operations, indicating that the PhD program will focus on applied research to support, improve and develop the activities undertaken.
- The operational perspective includes strategic, tactical and operational aspects. Strategic levels include the choice of type and size of a ship fleet. Tactical aspects concern the design of individual ships and the selection of equipment and staff. The operational aspects include planning, implementation and evaluation of nautical operations.
There is a compulsory joint maritime course offered at all the four institutions.
Study Plan
A study plan describes the content, structure and organization of a study programme. To each study plan there is a set of subject plans that describes the different subjects. In the subject plan you will also find a reading list. Below you will find a study model that shows you which subjects that are taught each term. In the study model you'll also find links to each subject plan.
Link to the latest published study plan