Oceanography | Vol.29, No.1
In The Leopard, di Lampedusa’s novel set in nineteenth century
Sicily, the prince’s nephew assuages his uncle’s unease with recent
social and political change by remarking, “If we want things to
stay as they are, things will have to change.” Admittedly, it is a
far stretch from nineteenth century Sicily to twenty-first century
America, but the sentiment expressed by the prince’s nephew
succinctly captures the view, expressed by the many authors who
have contributed to this special issue of Oceanography, of how
graduate education in ocean sciences should evolve. Namely,
in order for our delivery of an excellent graduate education to
remain constant, our approach to that delivery must adapt to
intellectual, cultural, economic, and social shifts in the academy
and in society at large.
Such adaptation has been demonstrated by the response
of ocean science graduate programs over the past couple of
decades to a shift in our appreciation of the multitude of dis-
ciplines required to tackle pressing ocean research questions.
Today, as articulated in the special issue articles, we are facing
other shifts—in workforce needs, in ocean science research pri-
orities, in society’s expectations for federally funded research—
that again call for changes in how we deliver excellent graduate
education. Such changes are manifest in the programs described
in this volume, some of which have been in place for decades.
However, the fact remains that for the bulk of our current gradu-
ate students, there is a mismatch between the skills they are learn-
ing and the skills needed outside the academy, and a mismatch
between the careers they are trained for and the careers available
to them upon graduation. These mismatches rightly motivate a
community discussion on the future of ocean science education.
The Oceanography Society was chartered as a professional
society with a mission “to promote communication among
oceanographers, and to provide a constituency for consensus
building across all the disciplines of the field.” Consistent with
this mission, TOS seeks to facilitate and promote the current
dialogue on graduate education. Additionally, given that stu-
dents currently constitute some 46% of our membership, TOS
is increasingly aware of its responsibility toward this younger
generation of oceanographers: we can think of no better way to
serve them than to pay attention to their futures. Toward that
end, in addition to this volume dedicated to graduate education,
TOS hosted a Town Hall at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting last
month in New Orleans for an exploration of “What’s Right and
What’s Wrong with Graduate Education in Ocean Sciences?”
In order to gather background material for the Town Hall
discussion, TOS administered a two-minute survey with ques-
tions on the type of training students have had and are cur-
rently receiving, on the type of training current students would
like to receive, on career opportunities students would like to
pursue, and on career opportunities that those already in the
field think students want to pursue. Clearly, we were inter-
ested in exploring differences in perception among community
members. A look at the survey results from ~400 respondents
(http://tos.org/pdfs/grad_education_survey_results.pdf) shows
that some of those differences indeed emerged. However, most
interesting to me was the degree of consensus on two questions:
(1) How confident are you that recent graduates in ocean sci-
ences will easily find employment in the field of ocean sciences?
and (2) Do you agree that current graduate students in ocean
sciences are receiving the appropriate training for the current
job market? As for the first question, less than 10% of students,
early career scientists, and those in later career stages said that
they were “very confident,” while ~30% of the same group of
respondents said they were “not confident at all.” For the second
question, again less than 10% strongly agreed, while ~20% did
not agree. The vast majority of respondents were “neutral” on
this question. Surely this collective shrug from the community
is itself an indication that we have work to do.
On that Wednesday evening in New Orleans, about
130 oceanographers gathered for the TOS Town Hall. After
small group discussions focused on the question posed in the
Town Hall’s title, participants offered their thoughts on how
graduate education should change. For the most part, the ideas
voiced that evening—by current students, faculty members, and
oceanographers with careers outside of academia—echo those
advocated within these pages. From my view, the solutions
offered fall into two categories. On the one hand is a call for
programmatic changes—in curriculum, degree offerings, pro-
fessional development skills, mentoring, and so forth. On the
other hand is a call for structural changes in how graduate edu-
cation in ocean sciences is funded. A contemplation of struc-
tural changes would include an examination of questions such
as: Should master’s education be funded in addition to doctoral
The Case for a “Sea Change” in
Graduate Education in the Ocean Sciences
FROM THE PRESIDENT