Female CEO pioneers education scholarship for women in maritime
Professor Basak Akdemir, CEO of UK based MLA College, is passionate about supporting the education of women in maritime and has been tackling gender inequalities in the sector through a Women in Maritime scholarship scheme.
Launched in March 2021 to support International Women’s Day, the scheme has seen all female students enrolling on a degree programme receive a £500 fee reduction.
The College is an established distance-learning higher education provider, specialising in degree programmes for the marine and maritime industry.
Awarded by the University of Plymouth, MLA offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes (both online and offline) in sustainable maritime operations for seafarers (deck & engineer), meteorology, oceanography, hydrography, navigation and engineering for marine professionals.
Professor Akdemir said: “One of my goals in life is to see more women in the shipping industry. I know it is a challenge and it will take time. We try to encourage this first by making education accessible. MLA College degrees are available to everyone, subject academic requirements, regardless of gender and location.
“Students can continue learning while balancing their careers and other life commitments. We also have a scholarship we offer to every single female student attending our degree programmes.”
Working professionals from across the world have been taking advantage of the opportunity to study part-time whilst maintaining their careers – even when away at sea. Their innovative Total Learning Package (TLP) enables students to study flexibly around their work and life commitments.
A current female MLA College student on the MSc Sustainable Maritime Operations programme said: “During my studies at MLA college, I have met students who at the same time are leaders of large numbers of crew members or who are seaman travelling for months and many other people balancing their responsibilities and workload.
“This programme allows you to self-organise, there are no strict schedules of weekly classes, the modules are all pre-recorded and uploaded to the system so you can set your own pace without being overloaded with work.”
MLA College continue to offer the Women in Maritime scholarship for new students and have three intakes per year; January, May and September. For more information about their programmes visit www.mla.ac.uk or email info@mla.ac.uk.
