Doctor of Philosophy (Quantitative Marine Science) and Graduate Diploma of Quantitative Marine and Antarctic Science

The Doctor of Philosophy (Quantitative Marine Science) is a research doctorate at the University of Tasmania, based in Hobart. You spend four years on a single, supervised research project in quantitative marine science, working with data from the Southern Ocean, Antarctic waters and the Tasman Sea. The degree is built around your thesis, not coursework. Alongside the PhD, the Graduate Diploma of Quantitative Marine and Antarctic Science gives you structured training in the quantitative methods that marine and Antarctic research runs on: statistics, modelling, data analysis and the programming tools scientists use to work with large environmental datasets.

How the qualification is structured

As an AQF level 10 qualification, a doctorate is a research degree. You complete a supervised research thesis, examined by external experts, and you may take some coursework or professional development units in your first year. The graduate diploma sits alongside the PhD and is made up of units of study, each carrying credit points. You complete those units early in candidature, then move to full-time research. The PhD itself is assessed on the thesis, not on credit points.

What you study and where you work

Your project will sit somewhere in the quantitative side of marine and Antarctic science: ocean modelling, fisheries stock assessment, satellite data, climate records, or population and ecosystem statistics. Tasmania is one of the few places in the world where this kind of work happens at scale. The university has strong research links with the CSIRO, the Australian Antarctic Division and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, so your supervision and data often come from people working on real Southern Ocean and Antarctic problems. You will learn to write code, handle large datasets, build models and communicate results to scientists and to the agencies that use them.

Who it suits

This path suits someone who wants a research career and is comfortable with mathematics, statistics or programming. Most applicants come in with an honours degree or a master's in a relevant science, but strong graduates from mathematics, physics, engineering or computer science also fit. If you want to work on climate, oceans or Antarctica and you like solving problems with data, this is one of the few places in Australia where you can do that at doctoral level. International students should check the English requirement for their situation and confirm all details on the official University of Tasmania page and the CRICOS register. While studying, a student visa allows 48 hours of work per fortnight, and after graduating you may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream.

• Marine scientist or oceanographer, research agencies, universities and environmental consultancies.
• Antarctic or Southern Ocean researcher, Australian Antarctic Division, CSIRO and international polar programmes.
• Quantitative analyst or data scientist, fisheries management, environmental monitoring and government science agencies.
• Climate and ocean modeller, research institutes, universities and climate services.
• Fisheries stock assessment scientist, state and Commonwealth fisheries bodies, industry and consultancies.
• Postdoctoral researcher or academic, universities in Australia and overseas.
• Environmental data or modelling consultant, private consultancies working with government and industry.