The final elective courses for the master's study in Coastal and Marine Management are underway. Upon their completion the students will be focusing on their master's thesis. Many of the students will stay in Ísafjörður to work on their theses since their research involves matters regarding the Westfjords.

When the final two courses are finished teaching of the academic year 2010 - 2011 will begin. Over twenty students are expected to arrive in Ísafjörður in the next few weeks and in fact four are already here studying in the Icelandic language course that is now underway.

The two final courses are Coastal and Marine Conservation and Energy and Materials Management. The fist is being taught by a visiting instructor from Massachusetts, USA. Brad Barr is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Director of the US National Marine Sanctuary Program and a PhD candidate at the University of Alaska. He serves on the Board of Directors for the George Wright Society, the Coastal Zone Canada Association, the Science and Management of Protected Areas Association, and is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. In this course students are being given the opportunity to learn about how marine protected area managers are confronting challenges, develop a practical understanding of the tools managers use, and acquire some understanding of what challenges have yet to be effectively met.

Energy and Materials Management is taught by Dr. John Nyboer, a University Research Associate at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who acts as the Executive Director of the Energy and Materials Research Group (EMRG) in REM. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach at understanding how humans affect global flows of energy and materials, the ways in which such flows are currently and prospectively a challenge for sustaining the Earth's life-support capability and social cohesion, thermodynamic, technological, geological and biological options for changing the character of these flows toward greater sustainability, potential implications of these options from an ecological, economic and social perspective, and institutional and policy mechanisms (local, regional, national and global) for fostering these options.