An Approach To Continuing Education
Authors: Lewis Ronald L. 
Published: December 2007

Publication Rights Reserved

This paper was prepared for the 40th Annual Fall Meeting of the of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Denver, Colo., Oct. 3–6, 1965. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal, provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

This paper discusses the development and trend of the continuing education program offered at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in cooperation with the Evangeline Section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. This paper analizes the reception of the program by industry personnel and discusses the scope of the program. Advantages and disadvantages of the program as presently presented are discussed. The author has found that both a refresher course and advanced courses in mathematics, geology, and petroleum engineering subjects must be planned and coordinated before the student enthusiastically receives the program.

Past experience indicates that single or isolated courses do not meet the needs of the student. To meet the demands of the student in mathematics it has been necessary to schedule a program of a minimum of three semesters, in geology a minimum of two semesters, in petroleum engineering a minimum of 4 or 5 semesters. This is assuming that the student has had prior training in each of the disciplines. A student participating in one course per semester would require a period of at least six semesters to receive substantial benefit from the program.

To date, some students have completed as many as five courses in the program on the undergraduate level or on the graduate level. The interest of the student has been demonstrated by his continuous enrollment throughout a two-year period.

HISTORY

Lafayette is the geographic center of the South Louisiana oil industry. Consequently, it was logical for the industry's management to establish the larger offices to coordinate drilling and production activity from Lafayette. Today almost every major oil producing company and service company has an office in the Heymann Oil Center or adjacent to it. Over 350 geologists and over 400 engineers are employed in their specialties. An additional untold number of geologists and engineers are employed in management positions. Until the introduction of night courses by the U. of Southwestern Louisiana on subjects pertaining to the oil and gas industry, the burden of further education of the technical people fell largely upon the individual or company.

The subject of advanced education for the technical people in Lafayette had been discussed by every professional group. The USL Geology Department had been conducting night courses in Geological subjects. However, these courses, for several years prior to 1963, were confined to geology students working toward degrees in geology.