Welcome and acknowledgement of country

Welcome to the National Virtual Expo, coming to you from Sydney. Welcome to this session on the Australian Maritime College. If you're interested in anything to do with the ocean, with shipping, with anything to do with boats, the AMC -- the Australian Maritime College -- is literally one of the best places on the planet for you to study this kind of stuff. It's part of the University of Tasmania. If you've got questions as we go, you can ask them in the chat if you're on the session hub, or if you're on social media just drop your question in the comments and we'll get back to every single one. If you're watching this on the replay, down in the description you'll find a link to the uni Discord as well as a community just for parents where you can continue to ask your questions even after this event is completed. Every single question will get a personal answer.

Hi everyone, and welcome to today's studying at the Australian Maritime College webinar. My name's Dougal Bain, and I'm part of the Future Students team here at the University of Tasmania. I'll be facilitating today's session. It's great to have you here. Joining me today we also have three of our academics: Nick Johnson, who will walk you through maritime engineering; Veera Zheng, speaking to global logistics; and Robbie Islam, covering ocean seafaring. All of them will share their expertise and insights with you shortly.

Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we meet today. I'm joining from Hobart, in lutruwita Tasmania, and I acknowledge the Palawa people as the traditional owners and custodians of this place. I also want to honour the people of Sydney. We pay our respects to elders, past and present, as knowledge holders and sharers. We honour their culture, language, history, and continuing connection to country. When we talk about studying here, we're talking about a place with deep meaning, enduring history, and a future that is stronger when Aboriginal perspectives are respected and centred.

Why choose the University of Tasmania and the AMC

To give you a sense of what we'll cover today, we'll walk through a number of key areas to help you explore your options and really picture what studying with us could look like. We'll start with why you might want to choose to study at the University of Tasmania, before introducing you to the Australian Maritime College and what makes it such a unique place to learn. From there, we'll take you through our undergraduate course options including maritime engineering, global logistics and maritime management, and ocean seafaring. We'll also cover practical aspects like accommodation and student life, as well as fees and support available to you along the way.

In terms of the student experience here at the University of Tasmania, there are a few things we're really proud of. Our students consistently report above-average satisfaction rates based on our annual student experience survey, which reflects the quality of teaching, support, and overall experience. We also see strong post-graduation employment outcomes for our students, which speak to the real-world skills and industry connections built through your degree. Alongside this, we offer a wide range of student support services -- whether that's academic support, wellbeing, or help settling into university life. We are here each and every step of your journey. More broadly, as a university, we're deeply committed to making a positive impact. We've been ranked number one in the world for climate action for multiple years running in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, and sustainability sits at the heart of everything we do.

Now, on to the Australian Maritime College. The AMC is a specialist institute of the University of Tasmania focused entirely on maritime education, training, and research. It's also ranked number one globally in the International Association of Maritime Universities benchmarks, which really speaks to the quality and reputation of what's on offer here. When you study at AMC, you're learning from teaching and research staff who bring real industry experience into the classroom -- people who are deeply connected to the maritime sector, so what you're learning is grounded in real-world practice. You'll also have access to some of the most advanced maritime facilities in the Southern Hemisphere, including ships and simulators, training and research vessels, and specialised facilities such as the Model Test Basin Towing Tank and Cavitation Laboratory, all based across our Beauty Point site and Newnham campus. It's a really hands-on, industry-connected learning environment that's designed to prepare you for a career in a global industry.

Here's just a little look at some of the facilities at AMC, which is at the Newnham campus. We've got the Maritime Simulation Centre, which is fantastic. The survival centre, firefighting centre -- my personal favourite is the towing tank. That's just a really interesting room to go into. There's always boat hardware on the walls and everything. It's fascinating stuff. There's also the Beauty Point training facility. Just some of the spaces at our Newnham campus and associated sites.

Bachelor of Maritime Engineering: structure and specialisations

Thanks everyone. My name is Nick Johnson. I am the course coordinator for the Maritime Engineering program, both the four-year degree and the five-year honours degree. I've been doing this for quite a number of years. As you start to enrol and join us, you'll probably get to know Eric, who is taking on that role more fully as I move into other areas. But for the time being, you're stuck with me. Please don't hesitate to reach out if there are any questions I can answer offline -- you'll be able to get my email address through the website, through your school's representative, or whoever it might be.

By way of introduction, I'm a naval architect, and I also hold a marine offshore engineering degree. I'm primarily an experimentalist, so the reason I love what we do is because every day is different. I come up with creative ways to solve weird and wonderful problems in the marine space. I'm in the maritime world because it's interesting, it's fun, and it's hard. I work primarily, experimentally, in the towing tank and model test basin. Those are exactly the facilities Dougal mentioned earlier, and if I threw a rock from where I'm sitting right now I could hit the towing tank. The facilities are pretty cool.

So, the Bachelor of Maritime Engineering -- I'll talk primarily about the four-year degree. It is a 32-unit degree and the fastest you can possibly complete it is four years. There's only a first-semester intake; there's no second-semester intake unless you're coming in with multiple credits, at which point we'll get to know each other really well as we work through that process. The maximum you can take is nine years, and it's quite common for people to elect to do it over five or six years these days. It's a flexible degree in that regard. Each unit is only offered in one semester, but I can put together a lot of different study plans for people who want to complete it in a more flexible manner. It's only offered out of the Newnham campus, and the reason for that is the facilities -- the towing tank, model test basin, cavitation tunnel, autonomous systems research lab, underwater collision research facility, electro labs. It's not really a degree we could deliver remotely elsewhere. We deliver a few units to our two-plus-three partner institutions, but realistically this is an on-campus, in-person degree because we are in those labs so regularly. We are designing and building in most semesters. We have a practical exercise in every single semester of the degree, and normally more than one.

As with pretty much all engineering degrees, there are science and maths prerequisites. Our maths prerequisite is Maths Methods -- in Tasmania that's called Maths Methods, but essentially it's your second-top mathematics subject in whatever curriculum you're in. We've also generally got Specialist Mathematics above it. If you pop into the Q&A and say "hey, this is what I'm studying," I'll be able to figure out whether that meets the prerequisite. For science, Physical Sciences or Physics or Chemistry -- really anything in that world, a pre-tertiary science of some description -- tends to cover that one. The official prerequisite is Physical Sciences. And if there are any mainlanders in the crowd, I know some of you don't have Physical Sciences -- that's a distinctly Tasmanian thing -- but again, something in physics or chemistry is ideal. If you're not sure, let's have a chat.

And if you're worried about prerequisites, please don't be remotely worried, because there is a pathway to bring you to studying this course if this is what you want to do. There are a couple of different formal pathways: there's the Diploma of University Studies with an engineering pathway, and if you're even earlier than that, there's the University Preparation Program. There are other ways and means as well. If you've got a passion to get into this space, please get in touch and I'd be happy to have that conversation and figure out how we make it happen.

We have two specialisations. We used to have three -- not to date myself -- but now we have naval architecture and ocean engineering. They are two very well-known fields in the maritime engineering world, and they exist as jobs in their own right. Much as there is a job called accountant, there is a job called naval architect. The degree is accredited by Engineers Australia, as all reputable engineering degrees in Australia are, which gives you really global portability. Jobs are quite easy to come by in the maritime engineering world. Our fourth-year students have got two, three, or four job offers, and the pay packets these graduates are being offered reflect a growing industry that is only going to get bigger in coming years, as we build offshore wind infrastructure, as naval shipbuilding expands, and all of the other maritime infrastructure in development. That global portability also comes from Engineers Australia accreditation -- it has global portability through the Washington Accord, meaning your degree is recognised in the vast majority of developed nations: the US, Canada, UK, and many others.

This is what the core structure looks like for our degree. There are only two electives, because it is a very action-packed course. People ask me why I do what I do. I don't actually really like boats. I'm not a massive fan of the beach. I really dislike saltwater. I do it because it's a challenge, because it's hard, because it's fun, and because every single day is different. That's why I got into it, and I still love it today. It speaks to why our course is as action-packed as it is.

The first year is a fairly generic engineering foundation year. You could elect to move across at the end of first year if you want and go and do something like mechanical or civil engineering -- leave the cool kids behind, if you like -- but that first year is really portable if this genuinely isn't for you. In second year, we get into maritime content and you start getting into the maritime world, but it's still really fundamental material. In third year, that's where we pick our majors. One cool thing you can do these days: there is one major unit and one elective in the first semester, and you can actually take the elective to sample the opposite major and trial both for the first semester until you figure out which one you want to pursue. We then do two major units in the second semester of third year, and that's where you really start to specialise as a naval architect or an ocean engineer. In fourth year, we do our two full-year capstone projects and finish off with some cherry-on-top units.

It's probably one of the harder engineering courses in the country, and I won't lie about that. The reason is that in our world it's still narrow enough that there are specific job-ready skill sets we can teach in the degree to allow you to graduate and really just start working, then build the rest of your skills through the rest of your career. Hydrostatics gives you stability analysis; ship manoeuvring gives you seakeeping analysis; resistance and propulsion, applied ship design, and design of offshore energy give you those industry-ready skills. You'll also notice Engineering Professional Practice in the course structure, which is your mandatory 12-week work-experience placement required in any engineering degree.

Naval architecture versus ocean engineering: what each specialisation covers

Naval architecture covers things that are meant to move under their own steam -- generally self-propelled in some way. Think sailing yachts, cruise ships, power craft, whether it's really large ones like oceangoing tankers and container ships, or really small ones like pleasure craft, aluminium tinnies, boat launches, super yachts. Even if you want to get into submarines, that's the naval architecture world.

Good segue into the ocean engineering world. Everything that has to go out offshore has to be built and constructed in some way. The ocean engineering world covers things that might still float but aren't necessarily meant to move under their own power -- they get towed into place but may still move. We're talking oil rigs, subsea completions, offshore pipelines, offshore cabling, renewable energy whether it be wave or tidal, drill rigs, and heavy lift operations offshore. Large pieces of offshore infrastructure still have to be built, and once they go offshore that work goes to an offshore installer, and ocean engineers are at the heart of that.

There is a lot of overlap between the two specialisations. We have naval architects who go and work as ocean engineers, and ocean engineers who cross into naval architecture. There are only four units' difference between the two, and with your two electives you can actually take two of those across, so you could end up with the vast majority of the maritime engineering world covered off. That allows you to work in either area depending on what you want to do, and some people change direction partway through their careers. That's the general gist of the two specialisations.

Bachelor of Global Logistics and Maritime Management: structure and flexibility

Hello everyone. My name is Veera. I'm the course coordinator for the Bachelor of Global Logistics and Maritime Management at the AMC. I'm also a senior lecturer teaching logistics and supply chain management subjects. Thank you for your interest in the maritime logistics industry, which contributes significantly to international trade.

Our programme is a type of bachelor of business, but with a specialisation in maritime business and logistics management. The course is essentially an onshore-based career foundation. It's more about managing cargo flow than working remotely at sea or offshore. The duration is a minimum of three years, though part-time students can take up to seven years to complete. One of the flexible features of our course is that we offer both face-to-face study and fully online study -- face to face in Launceston, or study remotely from anywhere in the world at any time. Many of our students are distance students who are full-time or part-time workers already in the industry, which is one of the advantages of the course. Our student cohort is a mix of school leavers and industry professionals. We constantly hear them exchanging ideas, especially from the industry people, which means that as a school leaver, when you study at university you're already hearing from people inside the industry and getting a sense of what it looks like and how it operates. Unlike maritime engineering, we have no prerequisites.

In our bachelor programme, we have two main areas of study: logistics and supply chain management, and maritime business management. In terms of maritime business management, we are the only institution in Australia that offers bachelor-level study in this field. The course also has accreditation from professional industry associations, including the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, the International Association of Maritime and Port Executives, and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Australia. What this means is that once you complete our course and enter the industry and want to obtain an industry certificate from one of these associations, you can receive credits toward those qualifications.

The course structure has a pink area for the maritime business management units, a blue area for the logistics and supply chain management units, and a green area representing one third of the programme that you can fill with electives from the University of Tasmania or choose another major from another school. For example, some students choose marketing from the business school, or if they're interested in doing business in a particular country, they might learn another language as their elective. This also adds flexibility and a different perspective to the course.

There are also flexible entry and exit points: after one year of study you can exit with a diploma, after two years with an associate degree, and at the end of three years with the bachelor degree. So if, for example, you're midway through your study and you find a very good job and don't want to lose that opportunity, you can exit with whichever qualification you've earned up to that point -- you won't leave with nothing. Equally, if you want to get a taste and flavour of the course first, you can enrol in the diploma programme, and if after one year you decide you'd like to continue, we'll recognise all the units you've completed in the diploma and articulate you into the associate degree or bachelor programme.

In terms of where our graduates end up, we have students working, for example, at the Port of Brisbane in supply chain management roles, who have progressed to senior positions and further postgraduate study. The logistics and supply chain subjects include international transport systems, air freight management, logistics management, warehousing and distribution, and global procurement. Almost all organisations have logistics and procurement activities nowadays, and our graduates can work across many industries, including retail, where logistics network planning and distribution centre management create strong demand for these skills. In the maritime business area, our graduates work in shipping companies and port industries in roles like ship chartering -- a very distinctive and unique subject offered at AMC. Maritime business management is a very unique offering in Australia and we're very proud to be the only institution providing it at bachelor level.

Ocean seafaring: nautical science and marine engineering pathways

Thank you Dougal, and thank you everyone for joining this session. I am Doctor Robin Islam, acting deputy director for Ocean Seafaring as well as senior lecturer in marine engineering. My background is marine engineering from the beginning, all the way from diploma through to PhD.

In ocean seafaring we offer two types of programme: the Bachelor of Applied Science (Nautical Science) for those who would like to work on board a ship as a navigation officer or captain, and the Bachelor of Applied Science (Marine Engineering) for those who would like to do the maintenance of marine engines. The duration of these programmes is a minimum of four years and a maximum of nine years. Please note that the maximum of nine years applies only to domestic students -- it is not applicable to international students due to visa conditions. Our campus is in Launceston, with some facilities at Beauty Point and Bell Bay, where we have our training ground and where we conduct our practical training.

These courses involve a pre-sea phase -- what we call "pre-sea" -- before you go out on the water, whether you're in nautical science or marine engineering. In engineering, for example, you can actually go to sea after just one semester. For international students there are also other pathway options, which I'll explain in a later slide. Our course is accredited by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), so all sea time related to this study is assessed by AMSA. We provide you with the academic qualification -- either an Advanced Diploma or a Bachelor of Applied Science in engineering or nautical science. However, once you have completed a required amount of sea time assessed by AMSA and pass the oral exam administered by AMSA, you will receive your Certificate of Competency from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is recognised all over the world. We are Australia's national institute for maritime seafaring education, and no other institution in Australia provides training all the way from pre-sea through to the Master of Applied Science degree. Only AMC provides that.

For the Bachelor of Applied Science (Nautical Science), you start studying with us at AMC, including completing short courses. After one semester of study you can go to sea as a cadet, where you need 9 to 18 months of sea time on board a ship. If you can't complete all 18 months at once, you can do nine months and then return to campus for Year 2 study, where you develop navigation and watchkeeping knowledge. After that you can go back to sea for an additional nine months. You require 18 months of sea time in total to sit for the first oral exam with AMSA. Then, finally, you complete another year of study in Year 3, which prepares you for the Mate oral certification, and that also requires 12 months of sea time. It is a combination of academic study alongside real-life experience on board ships. There are also alternative pathways -- for example, if you hold a certificate of competency from a recognised overseas country such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, or Pakistan, you can come directly into our Year 3 programme.

For the Bachelor of Applied Science (Marine Engineering), you begin with our pre-sea one semester, after which you can go to sea. For marine engineering, you only require nine months of sea time, compared to 18 months for nautical science. Once you complete your nine months, you return to campus for Year 2, where you develop marine engineering knowledge. If you are unable to secure a cadet berth on board a ship, you can still continue your study through to Year 3 -- that option is available. An additional nine months of sea time is optional, and then you can progress to Year 3. Please note that until you complete Year 2, you won't be able to sit for the watchkeeper or engineer oral exam with AMSA. Once you pass that exam and receive your ticket from AMSA, you will be promoted on a ship as a third engineer. After that you complete Year 3, which gives you the knowledge to sit for the class two and one oral exam. In Australia, we combine the class two and one programme together. Once you successfully pass the AMSA oral exam after Year 3, that is your ticket to the world -- you can work anywhere in the world.

Accommodation, student support, and next steps

Now I'll cover some general information. The AMC campus is in Launceston, Tasmania's second-largest city. It's a very easy city to live in and is close to a lot of natural and cultural experiences. The main University of Tasmania campus in Launceston is very close by as well. For accommodation, there are several options at and near the Newnham campus and an accommodation portal to apply through. The sooner you apply, the better -- you do not need to have received an offer yet to apply, so your application will just be conditional. Apply for accommodation as early as possible, and if you end up not receiving an offer or changing your plans, it will simply lapse. Most of the time applications open at the end of August, though it does vary a little, and applications are processed in the order they are received. The key thing: apply as soon as you can to avoid disappointment.

We also have a lot of study support available. There are a whole range of different options no matter what you need support with, whether that be financial, emotional, academic, or any of those things. The best way to find out what's available is to go to the website and search for "student support." Please don't feel like you have to do it alone. There is always something we can offer you. Thank you for being here with us today. We hope this session has helped you start to picture what your future at the Australian Maritime College could look like.