A Survey of Students, Professors, and Stakeholders' Expectations for the New MSc Study Program in Maritime Environmental Protection and Management at the University of Montenegro/Faculty of Maritime Studies in Kotor

Abstract

This study presents achieved results of conducted survey within the Erasmus + CBHE project "Development of Regional Joint Master Program in Maritime Environmental Protection and Management - MEP&M". The purpose of the study was to determine the expectation of students and professors at University of Montenegro/Faculty of Maritime studies Kotor and Montenegrin blue economy stakeholders toward new regional interdisciplinary joint MSc program Marine Environmental Protection and Management. In addition, the study included a survey of professors' and students' satisfaction with existing courses in different fields of marine environmental protection and management, the implementation of distance learning at the Faculty, and their knowledge of English, as the new program will be held in English and organized as blended learning. Survey on satisfaction level of blue economy stakeholders with cooperation with academia was conducted as well. According to the findings, the majority of respondents showed high expectations for the new MSc program and believe that having this program is very important for the University as well as blue economy sector in Montenegro. Also, satisfaction levels of different surveys showed that professors and students would need additional preparation in order to fully implement new MSc program, and that current collaboration between the university and the blue economy sector would need to be enhanced.   Received: 24 September 2022 / Accepted: 24 November 2022 / Published: 20 December 2022