Looking for a career that's planet-positive?
Want to understand the big picture of climate change?
Enjoy exploring and finding solutions?
Then dive in!
A Bachelor degree in Marine and Antarctic Science with a major in Oceans, Ice & Climate will open doors to careers that help protect our planet.
You can be a climate risk consultant for industry or governments or a sea-level rise specialist involved with coastal adaptation planning to reduce flood risk.
You can be a policy advisor for government or a company that needs a net zero carbon strategy. Or you can join the emerging field of carbon management.
You can join Australia’s Antarctic workforce, located largely in Hobart, with a career in oceanography, climate studies or ice sheet science. Go to Antarctica!
Starting in 2025, the University of Tasmania is offering a new major focussing on Australia's connection to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
The courses will be taught at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Australia’s leading centre of excellence in Antarctic research and education.
IMAS is part of the University of Tasmania, ranked #1 in climate action globally. Our University recognises Antarctica and the Southern Ocean as core to its mission and vital for securing Australia’s future.
The world has only one ocean with Antarctica right at the centre.
The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica links all of the world's oceanic basins.
Did you know?
Pumphouse for the planet
Antarctica affects weather patterns in Australia and at lower latitudes around the world. Changes in Antarctica affect how much heat and carbon the ocean can store. They affect how much oxygen gets to the deep ocean and, therefore, the whole chemistry and biology of the deep sea.
Sea-level rise
Antarctica holds most of the Earth's freshwater as the largest body of ice on the planet. Global sea-level rise from melting ice is one of the most critical climate impacts facing us today. The rate has doubled over the last thirty years, but we don't know how fast future sea levels will rise because the Antarctic Ice Sheet is difficult to predict.
Antarctic heartbeat
Every year the ocean around Antarctica freezes and thaws, in one of the largest seasonal cycles on Earth. Antarctic sea ice makes the planet tick – a cooling sunshade, an insulating blanket, a unique habitat, a protective wall, a global ocean pump. But this life-support system for Earth may be faltering, as sea-ice coverage reaches record lows.
The climate challenge is interdisciplinary.
You should be too.
The interdisciplinary specialisation in the Oceans, Ice & Climate major culminates with major themes and timely topics brought together in the final year. These are:
Ocean Dynamics & Global Climate Variability is a unit designed around the physical processes of ocean dynamics. You will learn about marine heat waves, ice-driven circulation shifts with far-reaching consequences and important natural phenomena such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation.
The Southern Ocean in the Global Carbon Cycle incorporates the important role of carbon dioxide - the most dominant greenhouse gas - into your understanding of ocean dynamics. You will learn how the Southern Ocean draws carbon from the atmosphere and plays an outsized role in the global carbon cycle.
Antarctic Climate Evolution & Past Extremes draws on paleo-records to understand rapid changes that took place in the past, including periods when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was as high as today. This unit provides a unique look into the complex drivers of climate change and its impact, past, present, and in the future.
Ice sheets, Climate and Sea Level Rise introduces glaciology and connects your knowledge of the Southern Ocean with glaciers and the study of the Earth’s largest ice sheet in Antarctica. You will reconstruct climate extremes in Australia from ice core analysis and become familiar with ice sheet projections, gaining insight to sea-level rise as a major risk to ecosystems, infrastructure and communities across coastal Australia.
Skills-based training to support the interdisciplinary and practical aspects of your learning include, in Year 2, Oceanographic Methods, where you will collect, analyse and present oceanographic data. Field trips and excursions, some aboard the RV Investigator - Australia’s dedicated marine research vessel - provide a real-life experience of working as a marine researcher.
Polar Observations and Modelling will train you in big data analytics, which are in high demand everywhere. You will learn how to explore, prepare, transform and display scientific data using open-source Python software assisted by generative AI.
Before taking these tailored units, you will be introduced to marine and Antarctic science in the broad-based core units of the Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science degree. You will also be broadening your knowledge with electable units taken outside your main area of specialisation.
Built with Shorthand