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Courses / Modules / SESS6074 Maritime Safety: Risk, Environment and Law

Maritime Safety: Risk, Environment and Law

When you'll study it
Whole Academic Year
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 7
Module lead
Adam Sobey
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

In view of the Engineering Council’s support for the development of engineering degrees that will equip students to become professional engineers, the module follows the European Network for Engineering Accreditation guidelines to contribute to graduate awareness of the wider multidisciplinary context of engineering. The module introduces, develops and examines an emerging engineer’s capability of becoming a responsible engineer – to human life, marine structures and the maritime environment, and highlights the importance of non-technical – societal, health and safety, environmental, economic and industrial - constraints and their implications for engineering practice. This is achieved through a greater understanding of the actors in the design, construction, operation and end-of-life of an engineered artefact and the legal, ethical and regulatory frameworks in which they operate.

The module engages a deep learning methodology in systematic risk assessment from the perception of risk to the quantification and mitigation of risk. From an engineering perspective this involves an understanding of the subjectivity associated with determining hazards and the stochastic nature of engineering components where tools are provided to deal with these issues. Further, fundamental concepts of law are reintroduced, building on previous undergraduate understanding of the law, to demonstrate how the law applies in the context of ships and shipbuilding.

Unfamiliar ways of looking at the design and operation of engineered systems, within their legal, ethical and regulatory context, are explored and used in a practical sense through group projects. These projects are disseminated to and assessed by their peers in a manner that will be increasingly more familiar during their professional lives.