It is stated, that the possibility of Ukraine to access the seas and oceans creates beneficial presumptions for increasing the capacity of the Maritime Industry, as through the Straits which connect the Black and the Azov seas with the World Ocean our country has the opportunity to develop trade relations with various countries all round the world. It is important to note, that nowadays urgent issues of Ukraine's national interests in the world ocean are required to be solved and protected. According to this, the maritime education should become the object of the state attention, because the operation of new type vessels requires more qualitative training of specialists, based on a thorough fundamental basis. It is proved, that the Maritime higher school modernization becomes important in terms of concepts, conventions, codes and recommendations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) implementation in the legislative framework of Ukraine. Currently, priority to the functioning of the Maritime high school is paid in connection with the implementation of amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978 (STCW) which were adopted in 2010 at a Diplomatic conference in Manila (Philippines) and are called "The Manila Amendments to the STCW Convention and Code". Manila amendments have introduced the significant changes in the standards of competences for Maritime professionals, particularly, they expanded and clarified standards in the high technologies, adopted new requirements for seafarers training and identified methods for their implementation. One of the most important requirements is a high level of technical training of seafarers and the formation of the creative and research activities foundations which provide a significant contribution to the overall level of their education. It is demonstrated, that for a certain period of time after the adoption of "The Manila Amendments to the STCW Convention and Code", there was a discrepancy between these requirements and the legislation of Ukraine. The introduction of competency - based approach and the need of adapting the national qualification framework to the requirements of the International Maritime Organization required the development of new standards of higher Maritime education for different disciplines and professions as well as new educational and training programs. Therefore, the authors of the National university "Odessa maritime academy" and Kherson state maritime academy have developed the Standard of Higher education in Ukraine in the knowledge field of "Transport" for the specialty "River and sea transport" (the bachelor degree). Based on the standard of higher education, the new syllabus and programmes in accordance with the requirements of the Maritime higher education, including the regulations of International Maritime Organization are developed. In the process of Maritime higher education standardization, it was found that the mechanisms of improving its quality is directly related to the provision of marine education fundamentalization. It was stated, that as in the Maritime higher educational establishments natural science component of the training is provided by the "Physics" discipline, the value of this discipline is increased substantially. For the first time in the course of "The Manila Amendments to the STCW Convention and Code" implementation in Ukraine the educational model of a specialist of river and sea transport is proposed and the leading role of the "Physics" discipline in the implementation of the cycle of natural science component as the basic training educational program is justified. It is firstly developed the contents of the physical component of the Standard of higher education in "Transport" knowledge area for the "River and Sea transport" specialty, which is connected greatly with scientific, methodological, professional and philosophical directions. Based on the contents of the physical component, the new programmes of standard academic discipline "Physics" are developed taking into account the need of their diversification for different specializations in terms of the educational process organization according to the competency - based approach. The methodological system of training for physics specialists of sea and river transport is firstly proposed, which includes interconnected target, regulatory, substantive, procedural and activity, organizational, managerial and effective evaluation components, provides the possibility to control the execution of learning tasks and corrective procedures, creates favourable methodological conditions for the formation of competence in the "Physics" discipline and achieves professional orientation and continuity in learning. It is proved, that the performance of the physical component implementation depends on the quality of training and methodological support and to which extent it meets the learning objectives and, therefore, an important task is to create the educational-methodical support of "Physics" discipline teaching. The theoretical and methodical bases of educational and methodical complex "Physics in Maritime higher education: river and sea transport" are firstly proposed as means of normative, informational, and procedural modelling of educational process in Physics in accordance to its goals and objectives, development strategies and future professionals education, the composition and structure of scientific knowledge, and the principles of disciplines integration of basic and professional courses and professional orientation of education. Educational and methodical complex contains the following components: Standard of higher education in Ukraine; the regulatory program of the "Physics" discipline for different specializations; course books; methodological guidelines; methodological support for students' project activity; methodological support in the implementation of the Physics and Astronomy content integration; methodological support in distance learning.
