Prospective Students

For all prospective applicants it is really important to establish contact as early as possible with a staff member who will supervise your work. Please follow these links to staff with research interests in marine biology and make contact with the appropriate person to determine if (s)he is able to supervise you.

Staff Research Interests

Dr Simon Davy - marine symbioses

Dr Jonathan Gardner - population and ecological genetics, marine reserves, aquaculture, intertidal ecology

Dr Nicole Phillips - population and community ecology of benthic marine organisms

Dr Peter Ritchie - evolutionary genetics - giant squid, marine birds

Dr Ken Ryan - Antarctic algae

Dr Jeff Shima - population and community ecology of organisms with stage-structured populations

Dr Joe Zuccarello - molecular biology and ecology of seaweeds

BSc Honours students

BSc Honours students
If you choose the BSc Honours option your degree will last nine months. You will enrol for three post-grad papers plus one thesis paper. You can start the BSc Honours degree at the beginning of a new semester (i.e., in March or in July), but in practice most students will enrol in March. The final degree split is that each written paper is worth 25% of the total degree (3 x 25% = 75%) while the thesis component = 25% of total degree.
Further information.

MSc and other Masters-level students

If you choose the MSc option you will spend the first 12 months of the degree doing course work (3 post-grad papers plus one thesis preparation paper), but you should also be able to get some field done too. You can start the MSc degree at the begnning of any new semester (i.e., in March or in July). In your second year (i.e., from about 12 months on) you will spend 100% of your time doing field work and writing up your thesis. The final degree split is that all course work combined = 40% of total degree and the thesis component = 60% of total degree. The expectation is that you will finish your MSc degree within 24-30 months. Further information.

PhD students

If you choose the PhD option you do not do any course work (very different from the American system), the thesis counts for 100% of the degree, and the expectation is that you will be finished in 3 to 3.5 yrs (much shorter than the typical North American PhD degree, but on a par with a typical British system PhD degree). Further information.

Fees for BSc, MSc and PhD students

You will pay "domestic" fees if you are a New Zealand citizen or Permanent Resident, an Australian citizen or PR, or a French or a German citizen. All other nationalities will pay "international" fees. VUW presently also funds two full PhD studentships for citizens of Chile.

Check the VUW website for actual fees which vary from degree to degree.

The only exception to the above information relates to cases where Victoria University has a reciprocal arrangement with an institution elsewhere, such that students pay normal fees at their home institution and are therefore not charged fees by VUW. Such arrangements exist with University of Hawaii (USA), Macquarie University (Australia) and Groenigen University (Holland), but are typically restricted to parts of degrees (e.g., some component of a degree) but not the full degree itself.

Post-Doctoral Researchers

For post-Doctoral reserch enquiries please contact one of the staff members listed above.