Postgraduate shipping students have the opportunity to engage with industry professionals and partner organisations on the development and resolution of live projects throughout the course.
As part of their efforts to identify and promote the issue of cargo crime, the Supply Chain Risk Industry Partnership (SCRIP) and University of Plymouth collaborated to create an MSc project for a student to complete a key piece of work in this field following a specific brief.
Samuel Thillmann (MSc International Procurement and Supply Chain Management student at the University of Plymouth) conducted his MSc project on 'Mapping the true cost and impact of cargo crime in logistics sector in the UK'. The project was secured by the Programme Manager (Dr Stavros Karamperidis), who is a member of SCRIP.
What is the
role of the UK port industry in supporting improvements to the resilience of
RoRo international supply chains?
Our students work
with real problems to improve the UK and global economy and society through
company-based projects. Christopher Yates, one of our 2019–20 MSc International
Procurement and Supply Chain Management students, conducted an MSc project with
the Department of Transport (DfT). His dissertation title was: “What is the
role of the UK port industry in supporting improvements to the resilience of
RoRo international supply chains?” The project was secured by the Programme
Manager (Dr Stavros Karamperidis) with the support of Maritime UK and the DfT.
Dr
Karamperidis described it as
“a great opportunity for Christopher to get involved with an exciting project with a huge impact on the UK, both economically and socially. It is our great pleasure to participate in such projects and demonstrate that our students are business-ready and that our staff have the knowledge to conduct high-level research”.
Christopher said:
"As an island nation, the UK economy is extremely dependent on its port infrastructure and wider supply chains to facilitate international trade. My project, which was conducted in partnership with the UK Department for Transport, aimed to analyse and evaluate the resilience levels of UK ports with specific regard for RoRo cargos. Through assessing these resilience levels, we were able to produce a series of recommendations for future policymaking to maintain and improve resilience levels across the nation and ensure these ports remain significant trade facilitators.
"I consider myself very lucky to have been able to work alongside individuals from the Department for Transport, especially at the height of a global pandemic. I was, of course, very nervous taking on such a project, especially alongside individuals who help create government policies within the maritime sector. However, now that it is completed, I can say that the hard work was worth it, and I have taken much away from this research project."
Mapping the true cost and impact of cargo crime in logistics sector in the UK
Samuel Thillmann one of our 2019-20 MSc International Procurement and Supply Chain Management students, conducted an MSc project with Supply Chain Risk Industry Partnership (SCRIP). His dissertation topic was: “Mapping the true cost and impact of cargo crime in logistics sector in the UK” The project was secured by the Programme Manager (Dr Stavros Karamperidis) who is a member of SCRIP.
Dr Karamperidis described it as
“Samuel had an amazing opportunity to collaborate with industry experts that they had helped him throughout his project to achieve some unique outcomes for the UK logistics sector, as cargo crime is an area that not many insights/data exist. Therefore, he has managed to create a rare piece of work that demonstrates the level of our students which the support of our great staff can achieve high level research. That demonstrates that our students are business-ready”.
Samuel said
"It was a very great and interesting time, challenge and experience to execute the research project of ‘Mapping the true cost and impact of cargo crime in logistics sector in the UK’ in order to finalise the Master of Science in International Procurement and Supply Chain Management at the University of Plymouth in 2020. The research project contained and examined relevant information and data based on the topic of cargo crime in the UK, including the identification of cargo crime and its core elements, identifying measurable cost elements of cargo crime and helping industry to objectify the problem of cargo crime and justify mitigation measures."
"In this context the aim of the research project was to recognize cargo crime and identify its cost and impact areas on business, UK economy, society and persons being affected by such crimes. Moreover, the project included a case study of different and relevant cargo crime cases based on existing literature and publications as well as statements and opinions of experts in the field of cargo crime. The research was executed with the support of the Supply Chain Risk Industry Partnership (SCRIP) which represents a corporation of organisations, industry experts, further stakeholders and members implementing solutions in the context of risk management and cargo crime in the UK."
Programme Leader Stavros Dr Stavros Karamperidis invited students to engage with industry experts at one of the most prestigious short sea conferences in Europe, the Coastlink conference.
Stavros moderated the session: The best cost and delivery solution with environmental consideration and panel members were the following key experts Andy Ellis, Country Manager of Unifeeder, Martyn Boyers Chief Executive of Grimsby Fish, Alex Veitch Head of Multimodal Policy of FTA, Duncan Buchanan Policy Director at the Road Haulage Association, Craig Barbour General Manager of Southampton Port.
This gave students the opportunity to practice their networking technique with professionals, gain insight into the business world and increase confidence in approaching and talking to professionals and businesses.
In 2018, we worked with the European Freight and Logistics Leaders' Forum on the project 'Developing future leaders in our own organisations'.
The outcomes were presented in Madrid during the F+L conference. High level European industry leaders have attended the event and provided feedback to the work conducted from our students.
