Petroleum Engineering Education in the Year 2000
Authors: Von Gonten W.D. 
Published: December 2007

Petroleum engineering education is tied directly to the needs of the drilling and production sectors of the petroleum industry. The demand for petroleum engineering graduates has experienced the same boom-and-bust cycles as the petroleum industry. Since 1956, undergraduate petroleum engineering enrollments have been as low as 1,000 and as high as 10,000. These extreme fluctuations in enrollment have caused severe problems for petroleum educational programs. petroleum educational programs. The curricula for most undergraduate petroleum engineering programs are similar because of the accreditation criteria programs are similar because of the accreditation criteria specified by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and SPE, Changes in curricula occur gradually. There will probably be no major changes in petroleum engineering curricula by probably be no major changes in petroleum engineering curricula by the year 2000. New technology is incorporated into the curricula yearly. More emphasis will probably be placed on economics, communication skills, and a better overall understanding of the petroleum industry. petroleum industry. Also, petroleum engineering departments need to develop ways to stabilize their faculties during the large swings of the boom-and-bust cycles of the petroleum industry.

Introduction

Before we discuss predictions for petroleum engineering education in the year 2000, we need to review our past and present situations. Petroleum engineering educational programs in the U.S. have gone Petroleum engineering educational programs in the U.S. have gone through the same boom-and-bust cycles as the petroleum industry. Note from Fig. 1 that the undergraduate enrollment averaged about 4,000 students during the 1950's. With the economic turndown at the end of the 1950's and early 1960's, enrollment dropped to a low point of approximately 1,000 students. The average enrollment point of approximately 1,000 students. The average enrollment during the 1960's and up until the time of the Arab embargo in 1973 was about 1,500 students. At that point, with the rapidly increasing price of oil, the need for petroleum engineering graduates increased, starting salaries increased, and enrollment increased to a level of about 10,000 undergraduate students in 1982. During the period from 1973 to 1982, petroleum engineering enrollments grew at a rate of about 20 to 25%/yr, an extremely rapid growth rate. The rapid growth rate caused some severe staffing and space problems in petroleum engineering schools. This occurred at a time when there were very few new PhD's in petroleum engineering, so the bulk of the new faculty acquired during this period were experienced people who had previously been employed in the petroleum industry. If we look at the previously been employed in the petroleum industry. If we look at the entire period from 1946 through 1986, the average number of undergraduates enrolled is about 3,000 to 3,500 per year. Fig. 2 is a graph of the number of actual undergraduate degrees awarded in petroleum engineering during the same period of time. During the 1950's, the number of petroleum engineers graduating each year averaged about 600 to 700. During the 1960's and early 1970's, the number averaged about 300. Beginning with the Arab embargo in 1973, student enrollment started to increase rapidly, but it was approximately 4 years before the increase in graduates occurred. You can see that the number of graduates started to increase rapidly in 1978, peaking in 1984 with 1,600 graduates. The number dropped to 1,400 in 1985 and will continue to drop at a rapid rate until hiring within the petroleum industry starts to increase. For the entire period of 1946 through 1985, it would appear that the average number of graduates produced per year was between 600 and 700. For the last 20 years, the number of institutions with accredited petroleum engineering programs has remained fairly constant at about 20. The total number of semester hours required to obtain a degree in petroleum engineering ranges from 1 30 to 148 hours at these 20 institutions, the average being 137 hours. Hours of actual petroleum engineering courses taken in these programs range from 31 to 46, with an average of 38. There is a fairly high degree of uniformity between the programs that are offered at the 20 institutions because of the programs that are offered at the 20 institutions because of the ABET accreditation process. To be accredited, an engineering program must have the following: (1) at least 1 year of courses in program must have the following: (1) at least 1 year of courses in basic sciences and mathematics, which includes physics, chemistry, and geology: (2) 1 year of engineering science courses, which includes statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, strength of materials, and electricity (3) 1/2 year of engineering design courses contained primarily in the upper-level petroleum engineering courses that teach the actual design procedures used by petroleum engineers; and (4) 1/2 year of humanities and social science courses designed to broaden the student's knowledge and to expand his/her perspective of the world. In addition to the general ABET criteria, specific petroleum engineering program criteria have been specified by SPE and adopted by ABET.

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