Marine Ecosystems MRes

Your research project will be in one of the areas covered by the marine science research groups:

• Marine Resources and Renewable Energy:
  • antifouling and ballast water treatment
  • bacterial bioactive products
  • bioenergy
• Ecology
• Modelling, Evidence and Policy

Please rest assured we make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the programmes, services and facilities described. However, it may be necessary to make changes due to significant disruption, for example in response to Covid-19.

View our Academic experience page, which gives information about your Newcastle University study experience for the academic year 2025-26.

See our terms and conditions and student complaints information, which gives details of circumstances that may lead to changes to programmes, modules or University services.

An MRes is available in various subject areas. This award combines taught modules, research training and a dissertation.

Find out about different types of postgraduate qualifications.

Module information is intended to provide an example of what you will study.

Our teaching is informed by research. Course content changes periodically to reflect developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback.

Full details of the modules on offer will be published through the Programme Regulations and Specifications ahead of each academic year. This usually happens in May.

To find out more please see our terms and conditions.

Optional modules availability

Some courses have optional modules. Student demand for optional modules may affect availability.

Three taught modules worth 60 credits are delivered in week blocks during semester one. A research project worth 120 credits is undertaken across semesters 2 and 3.

Depending on your modules, you'll be assessed through a combination of:

• Essay
• Professional skills assessments
• Oral presentation
• Report
• Research proposal
• Research paper

You'll develop your research skills by designing and completing a supervised project.

Major sites for projects include the:

• Arctic
• Maldives
• Bahamas
• Northumberland coast (UK)

The project will help you develop knowledge in your chosen research topic by drawing on the research communities in the:

• Ecology research group
• School of Natural and Environmental Sciences

You can design your research project and produce a research proposal upon application.

Topics can be highly varied to suit your interests. However, there are a few project ideas to choose from below, developed by staff working on existing larger research projects:

• Dredging up the Past – Assessing Current Scallop Dredging Impacts in Northumberland & Tracking Recovery from Historic Fishing Effort (PDF: 267KB)
• Effects of Trawling and Potting on Benthic Communities – Indicator Species Detection and Biological Traits Analysis (PDF: 242KB)

There are opportunities to get involved in key papers. Previous students have often led academic papers and projects.

Our mission is to help you:

• stay healthy, positive and feeling well
• overcome any challenges you may face during your degree – academic or personal
• get the most out of your postgraduate research experience
• carry out admin and activities essential to progressing through your degree
• understand postgraduate research processes, standards and rules

We can offer you tailored wellbeing support, courses and activities.

You can also access a broad range of workshops covering:

• research and professional skills
• careers support
• wellbeing
• health and safety
• public engagement
• academic development

Our staff have over 30 years of research and teaching experience, both in the UK and overseas. Their expertise spans the natural and social sciences in coastal-marine science and management.

The Ecology Research Group was formed in 2017 and comprises:

• 21 academics
• 12 postdoctoral researchers
• a large cohort of postgraduate research students

We work across the spectrum, from fundamental ecological science to application and translation into management and policy. We are interdisciplinary, applied, and, in some cases, develop cutting-edge technology. This includes work in complexity science and environmental genomics. We collaborate with colleagues from across the University, nationally and internationally and our work has societal impacts.

This research group has had notable successes in their work on:

• coral reefs (Dr James Guest, Dr Theresa Rueger, Dr Chancey MacDonald)
• marine spatial mapping and systems planning (Professor Clare Fitzsimmons)
• marine protected areas and management (Dr Fabrice Stephenson)
• kelp forest ecology (Professor Pip Moore)

They are also active in:

• marine time series (Dr Heather Sugden)
• climate change ecology and marine heatwaves (Professor Pip Moore, Dr James Guest, Dr Heather Sugden)
• citizen science and co-creation (Dr Jane Delany, Dr Heather Sugden)
• deep sea ecology and polar ecology (Dr Ben Wigham, Dr William Reid)

From 1 January 2021 there is an update to the way professional qualifications are recognised by countries outside of the UK

Check the government’s website for more information.

As a general principle, you should expect the tuition fee to increase in each subsequent academic year of your course, subject to government regulations on fee increases and in line with inflation.

Depending on your residency history, if you’re a student from the EU, other EEA or a Swiss national, with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, you’ll normally pay the ‘Home’ tuition fee rate and may be eligible for Student Finance England support.

EU students without settled or pre-settled status will normally be charged fees at the ‘International’ rate and will not be eligible for Student Finance England support. You may be eligible for a scholarship worth 25% off the international fee. Search our funding database. 

If you are unsure of your fee status, check out the latest guidance here.

Scholarships

We support our EU and international students by providing a generous range of Vice-Chancellor's automatic and merit-based scholarships. See our searchable postgraduate funding page for more information. 

If you are an international student or a student from the EU, EEA or Switzerland and you need a visa to study in the UK, you may have to pay a deposit.

You can check this in the How to apply section.

If you're applying for funding, always check the funding application deadline. This deadline may be earlier than the application deadline for your course.

For some funding schemes, you need to have received an offer of a place on a course before you can apply for the funding.