Chapter 7 Education and Training 



The Nation now possesses a healthy program of 

 graduate training in marine science and as a 

 consequence has available a supply of young 

 research-trained scientists sufficient to support an 

 immediate expansion in the effort in this field. 

 Nevertheless, over the longer term, a fully de- 

 veloped national program of basic research must 

 be accompanied by an expanded level of trained 

 manpower entering the field. 



Inasmuch as a full discussion of the problems 

 that will be involved in maintaining an adequate 

 supply of trained manpower to meet all the 

 requirements of ocean resource utilization is con- 

 tained in the Commission's Staff Study on Educa- 

 tion and Manpower, this report will consider solely 

 the needs for manpower concerned with basic 

 research. These needs can be identified in terms of 

 four main levels of training: the postdoctoral level, 

 the doctoral candidate, the bachelor/master's de- 

 gree student, and the technician. 



Doctoral candidates in oceanography are now 

 drawn from the top ranks of holders of bachelor's 

 degrees in one of the appropriate basic fields of 

 study: mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, 

 or biology. The Council of Laboratory Directors, 

 made up of the 10 largest oceanographic institu- 

 tions,' has reported that in 1967 only 286 out of 

 1,884 student applicants were accepted.^ Even 

 allowing for a considerable margin of duplication 

 among the student applicants to the various 

 schools, these figures make it clear that the choice 

 of individuals as entrants into present doctoral 

 programs has become a highly selective process. 



Under an expanded program of ocean explora- 

 tion and exploitation, the increased public atten- 

 tion that will be given to ocean science as a 

 profession can be counted on to maintain the 

 present desirable trend and to guarantee continued 



Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of 

 Rhode Island, Lament Geological Observatory, Johns 

 Hopkins University, University of Miami, Texas A&M 

 University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Oregon 

 State University, University of Washington, University of 

 Hawaii. 



The Role of Academic Institutions in the De- 

 velopment of Marine Resources and Technology, Report 

 of the Council of Oceanographic Laboratory Directors, 

 1967. 



crops of highly qualified applicants to the graduate 

 schools. Gradual expansion of the present capacity 

 of the graduate schools will result in an increasing 

 supply of trained researchers in ocean science with 

 no danger of diminishing the present high quality. 



The 1 967 manpower study of the International 

 Oceanographic Foundation identified 610 Ph.D. 

 holders active in the profession; 325 of these 

 reported basic research as their primary occupa- 

 tion and 175 (including 136 university people 

 heavily engaged in teaching) reported basic re- 

 search as their secondary occupation.^ Thus 500 

 of the 610 Ph.D. degree-holders in the comprehen- 

 sive sample collected by the International Ocean- 

 ographic Foundation, or over 80 per cent, are 

 engaged in basic research. 



Of these 610, less than a third (169) had 

 received doctorates in oceanography, marine 

 science, or fisheries, whereas nearly 70 per cent 

 (420) had received it in other disciplines. Biologi- 

 cal sciences had supplied 215, geology 98, chem- 

 istry 28, physics 23, and other physical sciences 

 56. The field was not identified for 21 . 



Corresponding figures for 1964 were 353 

 Ph.D.'s, of whom 103 earned their degrees in 

 oceanography, marine science, and fisheries, 123 

 in biological sciences, 49 in geology, 12 in physics, 

 11 in chemistry, 17 in other physical sciences, and 

 38 in unidentified specialties. In this group, 211 

 were engaged primarily and 84 secondarily in basic 

 research; the total of 295 is likewise over 80 

 per cent of the total sample of 353. 



The proportion of doctorates in oceanography, 

 marine science, and fisheries was virtually the same 

 in both surveys, 29 per cent in 1964, and 28 per 

 cent in 1967. 



These figures show that manpower for con- 

 ducting basic oceanographic research is not pri- 

 marily limited to the output of trained doctorate 

 degree holders from university departments of 

 oceanography and marine science. The situation in 

 the oceanographic profession is unlike that in the 



A Study of the Numbers and Characteristics of 

 Oceanographic Personnel in the United States, 1967, 

 prepared by the International Oceanographic Foundation 

 under National Science Foundation Contract C-469, 

 1967. 



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