Educating Maritime Engineers for a Globalised Industry: Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Universities

In Denmark, the maritime engineering competences requested by the industry have changed in the past one to two decades. The typical naval architects do no longer find them selves working in the ship-building industry but rather in the industry of ship operators, consultancies, class societies, etc. This means that universities educating maritime engineers need to reflect the changes in the curricula for their maritime engineering students. Topics and issues regarding this matter have recently been addressed in a survey made in the Danish maritime industry. The survey concludes that the demand for maritime engineers in the industry is considerably larger than the output from the technical universities. Moreover, it sets forth a series of recommendations to the industry as well as to the universities to facilitate meeting the demand for maritime engineers in Denmark in the future. The recommendations are outlined together with work commenced at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) to update the curricula for DTU’s maritime engineering students. Thus, DTU offers an education reflecting a large share of the recommendations in the curricula.