Impact of student backgrounds on the outcomes of maritime postgraduate professional education

Maritime taught postgraduate education plays a vital role in cultivating expertise within the ever-evolving global logistics industry. Notably, the diverse backgrounds of students are of great importance in this context, given the scarcity of undergraduate maritime programs and the industry's demand for professionals from various disciplines. However, this diversity also poses a challenge to educators in terms of effectively training and evaluating these students. This study focuses on a maritime taught postgraduate professional program and investigates how student background characteristics affect their learning outcomes and academic performance. By utilizing both stated preference data (SP) and revealed preference data (RP) collected from a postgraduate maritime professional program in Hong Kong, the study aims to mitigate hypothetical bias and gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing student perceptions and experiences in maritime industry. The study measures five dimensions of student learning outcomes, including professionalism, strategic thinking, lifelong learning capability, career development, and academic performance. The findings suggest that student background characteristics have minimal impact on maritime learning outcomes, with only gender and undergraduate programs showing some influence. The study highlights the inclusive nature of maritime professional education, emphasizing that training quality, rather than personal background, is the key determinant of success.