Maritime Engineering, Coastal Management & Marine Technology Education and Research at NTNU Norway
Established in 1996, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is Norway's second largest university located in Trondheim. NTNU’s 53 departments are spread out over seven major campuses including Tyholt for marine technology. Every year about 3,300 students graduate and two-thirds of which are master's or PhD candidates. In addition to engineering and the natural and physical sciences, the university offers advanced degrees in other academic disciplines ranging from the social sciences, the arts, medicine, architecture and fine art.
NTNU has several campuses in Trondheim, with Gløshaugen, for engineering and sciences, and Dragvoll, for humanities and social sciences as the main two. With 20,000 students studying a range of disciplines in seven different faculties, NTNU has more than 100 laboratories and is at any time running some 2,000 research projects It has around 300 research agreements or exchange programs with 58 institutions worldwide.
With less than a thousandth of the world's inhabitants, Norway is world class in terms of marine science, marine technology and maritime industrial enterprise. Marine technology encompasses activities tied to the largest exporting industries such as Oil and gas extraction; Fisheries technology and aquaculture; and Marine engineering and the associated industries. The Department of Marine Technology graduates 60-80 masters of engineering students every year, and is the largest in its field in the western world. The Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures (CeSOS) is hosted by the department, with approx. 50 PhD-students and researchers from a host of countries.
Academic Programs
NTNU Integrated Masters Program
- MSc in Marine technology (Trondheim, Norwegian, 5 years): First two years of this degree program emphasize basic technological subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc as well as basic marine technology. These basic subjects are the tool box you need to plunge into marine technological challenges. The integrated masters program requires 300 credits and is based on full-time study from matriculation.
NTNU International Masters Programs
- MSc in Marine Technology (Trondheim, English, 2 years): The two-year International Master of Science Degree in Marine Technology is a demanding and exciting program which provides the fundamental background for technical solutions which safely and sustainably exploit marine resources. Marine technology is an ideal specialization for bachelor’s degree engineers with technical interests, and paves the way for a wide variety of career possibilities. The program offers seven specializations - Marine Structures, Marine Cybernetics, Marine Hydrodynamics, Marine Operations, Marine Engineering, Marine System Design, and Marine Resources & Aquaculture.
- Master of Ship Design (Alesund, English, 2 years) / Professional Master Degree (1.5 years full-time, or 3 years part-time): It is a great engineering challenge to design new ship systems that could turn shipping into the most efficient, safe and environmentally friendly means of transportation in the future. New ship design is typically in response to needs coming from new technologies, changes in the world politics, new strategies and lessons learned from previous ship development. During your second semester you choose one of the following majors: Ship Structural Design or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
Nordic Masters Program
- Nordic Master in Maritime Engineering - NMME (Trondheim, English, 2 years): The Nordic Master in Maritime Engineering is based on the expertise of the five participating universities within naval architecture, offshore engineering and maritime engineering. Participants will profit from the Nordic Five Tech universities long standing tradition and competence in the field and Nordic students wishing to specialize in a specific area of expertise offered within the alliance. The program deals with ships, small craft, yachts and offshore structures. The program focuses on principles within design, construction and operation of ship and offshore structures, and their interaction with the environment. The program is designed for students who wish to pursue a career in the technical maritime world, where they will cooperate as professionals on designing, building or operating ships, offshore structures, boats or other floating structures. There are five study tracks - Ocean structures (NTNU); Passenger Ships (Aalto); Ship Design (Chalmers); Ship Operations (DTU); and Small Craft (KTH).
Erasmus Mundus Program
- MSc in Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management (Trondheim, English, 2 years): In this Erasmus Mundus Master Course in Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management (CoMEM) program, students study in two or three different countries depending on the individual track of study. The programme is offered by a consortium of five recognised European universities. All participating universities have long-standing relations with the industry, public works administrations and research and education institutes - The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim, Norway), Polytechnic University of Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), Technical University of Delft (Netherlands), City University London (UK), and University of Southampton (UK).
Research Program
- PhD in Marine Technology (Trondheim, 3 years): The typical length for the PhD program in Marine Technology is three years; this is comprised of one semester of additional study and 2.5 years of dissertation work and research. Three of these programs are financed by the Norwegian Research Council - Scenario-based risk assessment of ship collisions and grounding; Marine computational fluid dynamics; and Energy-efficient all-electric ships.
NTNU Features
The roots of Norway’s maritime technological leadership go back more than a thousand years, when know-how in shipbuilding enabled the Vikings to build colonies and trade throughout the North Atlantic. Norway has 1645 miles of indented coastline and deep fjords fed by rivers off the inland mountain plateaus. This provides clean renewable energy – hydropower and electricity to Norwegian offices, factories and houses. Engineers educated in Trondheim have been central in building the infrastructure that makes all this possible. Off the coast there are the abundant sources of healthy food - fish-farms in coastal waters and fisheries on the banks in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. Energy resources, advanced technology and the fisheries are the three pillars that underpin one of the healthiest economies on the planet.
- Campus: Tyholt, an area located on the highest point in the city of Trondheim may be the most visible of NTNU's campuses. NTNU's buildings at Tyholt are every bit as impressive, for it's here that you'll find the Department of Marine Technology, right next to the Ship Model Tank, Cavitation Tunnel and the Ocean Basin Laboratory. The ocean research facilities are technically owned by MARINTEK, a branch of SINTEF, but are used widely in NTNU research.
- Accreditation: NTNU is a leading public research institution in Norway and the programs are suitably accredited by authorized organizations in Norway.
- Marine Technology Job Prospects: Candidates from Marine Technology often start their career within shipping and offshore. These industries are very varied. For the students, this equals great opportunities to work with their personal areas of interest. Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is traditionally a company that employs many of the students. Some start working for engineering and consultancy firms, some join research institutions, some are employed by oil companies and some start working for shipping companies.
- Exchange Students: NTNU has nearly 300 different cooperative or exchange agreements with institutions in 58 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe. The university also participates in numerous student exchange and placement programs, such as the Erasmus program and the Leonardo da Vinci program. Others are operated in conjunction with other Nordic countries (NORDPLUS).
- Center for Ships and Ocean Structures (CeSOS): Research at the Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures (CeSOS) aims at developing fundamental knowledge about how ships and other structures behave in the ocean environment, using analytical, numerical and experimental studies. This knowledge is vital, both now and in the future, for the design of safe, cost effective and environmentally friendly structures as well as in the planning and execution of marine operations.
- Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC): Performance in a Seaway - Marine propellers must also perform well in rough weather. One might think this obvious, but the fact is that up until today propellers and propulsion systems have been designed for optimum performance in calm waters. Rough weather operations have been taken into account using only crude safety factors. In order to further understanding and provide the necessary tools for the rational design of propellers and propulsors in rough water operations, Rolls-Royce Marine, MARINTEK and NTNU have engaged in a ten-year research program focusing on seaway performance.
- Housing: International master students accepted at NTNU, will automatically be considered for housing in a single room (unless the student specifies to us that he will arrange for housing on his/her own).