Interdisciplinary education: the Masters programme in Coastal and Marine Resource Management at the University of Portsmouth

The increasing pressure on the world’s coastal resources highlights the need for more integrated approaches to their management. Such integration needs to be both vertical and horizontal. The resulting interdisciplinary approach that is required calls for the development of new skills and broader understanding. There is a need, therefore, for interdisciplinary training and education in coastal and marine resource management. This paper examines the response of the University of Portsmouth, England, to this challenge. It comments on the appropriateness of its location for research in this field and discusses how a successful interdisciplinary Masters level course has been developed in coastal and marine resource management. In considering the lessons learnt, it identifies some of the difficulties of working across traditional subject boundaries but suggests that it also offers many opportunities.