The Vancouver Summer Program with UBC Science provides students with the opportunity to study at a top international research university and experience local Vancouver culture.

What you might expect/course format

Courses with UBC Science include in-class and lab portions taught by UBC faculty members, graduate students, and guest lecturers. Courses also include short field trips and other engaging learning opportunities. Students can expect team-based learning activities and assignments.

Check out VSP Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries’ page here!

July 2024 Course Packages

Grand Challenges Facing the Ocean

This project-based course will develop leadership and advocacy skills that are required to address key challenges facing the ocean, from overexploitation and marine pollution to climate change and ocean acidification. Students will learn about key marine and coastal issues and how to apply technical expertise to address real-world marine challenges. Working in groups on timely problems facing the ocean, students will learn to analyze the challenges, identify opportunities for resolution, and then embark on that path to change. In so doing, they will gain experience applying their technical expertise to address actual challenges facing the oceans today.

How to be an Ocean Leader

This course will train students to help create a world in which the oceans are healthy and their resources are used sustainably and equitably. Through lectures and workshop activities, students will learn about integrating and synthesizing disparate knowledge, policy analysis and briefing, public communication, and knowledge translation. The instructors focus on developing transferable capacity to improve the future of the ocean, rather than teaching technical skills that are specific to particular disciplines. That means that students will develop skills in collective leadership, facilitating collaboration, interdisciplinary teamwork, oral presentations, conventional and social media, public communication, and knowledge translation.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

For more information

For VSP Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries-specific questions, email Vicente Regis, Program Specialist, Extracurricular and Extended Learning, at v.regis@oceans.ubc.ca.