Oceanography Education
Oceanography education encompasses the teaching and learning of the scientific study of the ocean, spanning the four traditional subdisciplines — physical, chemical, biological, and geological oceanography — along with applied engineering fields such as ocean engineering and marine technology. Educational offerings range from introductory survey courses and open-access textbooks to specialised graduate programmes and hands-on field training aboard research vessels.
Instruction in oceanography is delivered through university degree programmes, individual academic modules, intensive field courses, research cruises, online courses, and open educational resources. The field is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and climate science.[^c4][^c6] Public education initiatives, such as the UNESCO Ocean Literacy framework, have identified seven essential principles of ocean knowledge and have noted that ocean-specific content remains limited within national education systems globally.[^c3] The framework's principles range from the recognition that Earth has one interconnected ocean to the understanding that it remains largely unexplored.[^c1][^c2] UNESCO-IOC's Ocean Literacy programme is steered by a renewed group of ocean literacy experts convened to guide the next phase of the programme and its Portal.[^c29]
Graduate and undergraduate programmes in oceanography are offered at universities across Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia, ranging from specialised doctoral tracks to international consortium-based master's degrees and interdisciplinary networks. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography alone catalogues over 100 graduate-level courses,[^c6] while the open-access textbook by Paul Webb provides a free, comprehensive introduction for students worldwide.[^c4] Online learning platforms have expanded access further: a Coursera MOOC from the Universitat de Barcelona has enrolled over 32,000 students,[^c5] and in 2026 a free BBNJ Agreement online course launched, drawing on over 80 global experts across 20 hours of self-paced content.[^c10] The OPERA project launched a free seven-week MOOC on fundamentals of ocean forecasting, developed by Mercator Ocean International in partnership with African institutions, targeting students and early-career professionals particularly in Africa. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) launched a series of three free mini-MOOCs on understanding and using climate data for decision-making, covering ocean variables such as sea surface temperature and sea level rise.
The UN Decade of Ocean Science, running 2021–2030, had mobilised over 831 Decade Actions (programmes, projects, contributions) across all continents by February 2026.[^c11] By June 2025, 706 Decade Actions had already generated over 10,700 knowledge products, with more than half led by women and a quarter by Early Career Ocean Professionals.[^c12] New capacity-building programmes continued to emerge in 2026, including the BBNJ Agreement online course, the Ocean Futures Fellowship by OceanX Education and IIE, the Ocean Dreams IMAX documentary initiative distributed in over 200 museums worldwide,[^c20] and EMBARK cyberinfrastructure training at WHOI.[^c9][^c10] The European Ocean Pact, launched in 2025, places education and awareness at the heart of its mission for ocean health, biodiversity protection, and sustainable blue growth.[^c19] The German Ocean Foundation, one of 25 UN Ocean Decade Implementing Partners, expanded its ocean literacy programmes with the Love Your Ocean initiative reaching over 1,000 schoolchildren annually.[^c17] The Italian National Research Council (CNR) launched the Gaia Blu Ocean Generation Academy, turning the research vessel RV Gaia Blu into a permanent educational platform for Early Career Ocean Professionals.[^c18] At the heart of the Decade's people-centred agenda is the Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOP) Programme, endorsed as a network programme in 2021 to empower those within ten years of professional experience in any ocean-related field through a global registry and regional and national nodes.[^c28]
Pre-college and secondary-school programmes expanded in 2026, with the Sea Education Association offering a three-week residential Pre-College Oceanography programme in Woods Hole, the Summer Springboard Marine Biology programme hosted at UC San Diego, and HKUST launching an interdisciplinary "Tides of Change" course blending climate science with maritime industry decarbonisation and Hong Kong's typhoon history. Teacher professional development programmes continued to grow, including the Bigelow BLOOM Educators Program for Maine and New Hampshire science teachers, the Taiwan NAMR OSS Ocean Science Camp for K-12 teachers, and the University of Cádiz "Sailing Together" training programme on designing impactful marine education.
The Global Blue Schools Network, coordinated by UNESCO-IOC, expanded to nearly 2,400 schools across 48 countries, with regional networks operating in Europe, the Atlantic basin, and the Caribbean; by June 2026, UNESCO reported the network growing to roughly 8,000 schools across 72 countries.[^c32] In Europe, the Horizon Europe ProBleu project, coordinated by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), expands the Network of European Blue Schools alongside the BlueLightS project, together supporting more than 200 schools.[^c33] The Ocean Decade Blue Catalyst (bLYSs), led by UiT The Arctic University of Norway under the University of the Arctic, extends the Decade's ocean-literacy agenda to Arctic and non-Arctic communities, aiming to ignite a global wave of ocean literacy by 2030.[^c34] In 2026, the IOI Ocean Academy delivered 11 free online modules in 7 languages across 9 countries. The comprehensive three-volume Springer series "Ocean Literacy: The Foundation for the Success of the Ocean Decade," comprising 65 chapters by over 250 authors from 42 countries, was completed with the publication of Volumes II and III in May 2026.[^c21][^c22] UNESCO's educational programmes have trained nearly 350,000 young people and adults in ocean protection issues, with Brazil adopting the first national K–12 curriculum dedicated to ocean literacy.[^c8]
Research on ocean literacy at the K–12 level has produced divergent findings across South America. A year-long intervention in a Brazilian public school demonstrated measurable gains in ocean knowledge among 235 students,[^c13] while a content analysis of Chilean primary textbooks found that fewer than 20% of animal images depict marine fauna and only three of seven Ocean Literacy Principles are addressed in the national curriculum.[^c14] Regional capacity-building programmes such as the Gulf of Guinea Ocean Sciences Summer School (GGOSSS) also expanded, with its inaugural 2025 edition training 36 early-career scientists from six countries,[^c15] while the Ocean Discovery League's Accessing the Deep programme entered its third year as a flagship deep-sea training and mentorship initiative.[^c16]
Maritime Education in China
China's "Maritime Power" (海洋强国) national strategy has driven significant growth in oceanography education. Xiamen University's "Maritime Silk Road" (海丝学堂) training programme, launched in 2018, has engaged over 500 students and faculty from five countries aboard the research vessel Jiageng.[^c24] Students conduct integrated multi-dimensional surveys — physical, chemical, biological, and geological — from the sea surface to thousands of metres deep, combining scientific training with public outreach during port calls in countries such as Indonesia.[^c23] Complementing shipboard training, China's national "Blue Granary" (蓝色粮仓) strategy for marine food security drives offshore marine ranching and deep-sea aquaculture. In 2023, the Shandong Changdao "Blue Granary" Marine Economic Development Zone became China's first offshore marine economic development zone,[^c30] and Guangdong commissioned the mainland's first hexagonal jackable truss net cages for deep-sea farming.[^c31] University research supports these goals: South China Agricultural University studies sea cucumber aquaculture and hybrid sea urchin breeding, while Ningbo University researches salt-alkali land aquaculture, transplanting marine species to inland saline areas.
Digital Innovation in Ocean Education
The HKUST WavyOcean 3.0 Digital Twin Earth System, launched in 2026, makes ocean data accessible to the public through an interactive 3D visualisation platform, allowing users to explore ocean currents, freshwater dispersion, and ecological variables.[^c26] The platform is available in public and professional editions and covers China's coastal seas and the western Pacific Ocean.
Sport and Ocean Literacy Partnerships
The UNESCO–Luna Rossa partnership, renewed in 2026 within the SEA BEYOND programme, leverages professional sailing to advance ocean literacy through Ocean&Climate Village exhibitions featuring immersive VR experiences and interactive installations focused on Mediterranean marine ecosystems.[^c27] An earlier edition of the exhibition in Barcelona during the 37th America's Cup reached over 1,000 people.
Place-Based Ocean Literacy
Indonesia's National Forum on Education for Sustainable Development in June 2026 highlighted ocean literacy through the launch of the WakatobiKu learning package, which integrates scientific knowledge, local ecological knowledge, and experiential learning for junior secondary students in Wakatobi's marine environment.[^c25] The forum, which gathered over 130 in-person and 1,800 online participants, demonstrated how ocean literacy can be embedded in national education systems through community-integrated curriculum design.