Declining enrolment driving changes in oil and gas university programs

Students’ concerns about climate change and sustainability are driving a shift in engineering and energy programming offered by universities in oil-producing Alberta and Newfoundland.

Steep declines in enrolment in some conventional oil and natural gas programs, including those at the University of Calgary and Memorial University, is also spurring universities to revamp their engineering curricula and offer broader programs that encompass all forms of energy, according to academic leaders in both provinces.

“Students feel as though the oil and gas sector may not be aligned with sustainability goals,” said Dr. Arin Sen, PhD, head of the chemical and petroleum engineering department at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering. “The students are asking all these types of questions, and I think that’s leading them away from taking oil and gas engineering programs.”

Enrolment has plunged in some programs

The University of Calgary suspended its oil and gas engineering undergraduate program earlier this year after fewer than 20 students enrolled in a program that historically allocated 240 seats.

There was a similar decline in students wanting to take a petroleum minor in their undergrad chemical engineering degree, Sen said.

UCalgary also saw a nearly 91-percent drop in the number of undergrads with a concentration in petroleum geology, from 138 in the fall of 2015 to 13 in the fall of 2019, according to figures gathered by Jeremy McCrea, an analyst at Raymond James Ltd.

At the graduate level, including MEng, MSc and PhD programs, “quite a few” students are still pursuing oil and gas-related studies, Sen noted.

At Memorial University, the number of students enrolled in oil and gas engineering declined from 70 in the 2018-19 academic year to just 19 in the fall of 2021.

Only two students are enrolled in the university’s oil and gas engineering PhD program this year, down from 11 students in 2016-2017.

One university that appears to be bucking the trend is the University of Alberta, where enrolment in petroleum engineering “has been steady over the past five years, and this year is consistent with that trend,” Dr. Ergun Kuru, PhD, director of the petroleum engineering program, said in an email. However, he didn’t provide specific enrolment figures.

Students are concerned about sustainability as well as job prospects

Today’s students are well informed about issues such as climate change, renewables and other clean forms of energy, and the global energy transition, Sen said.

“They want to make a positive change in the world. They want to contribute to a solution to the grand challenges we’re faced with,” he told Research Money.

Students want to be employed in a career that could last 40 years, but they are unsure about the future of oil and gas, according to Sen. The sector’s most recent economic downturn was unusually prolonged and students see the continuing pressures that the industry is facing, he added.

For example, at the UN’s COP26 climate conference last week, several countries — as well as Quebec — launched the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance to phase out global oil and gas production and leave untapped fossil fuel reserves in the ground.

Dr. Greg Naterer, PhD, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University in St. John’s, said he believes the dropping enrolment in some conventional oil and gas programs is mostly cyclical and related to the industry’s financial health.

However, students are also concerned about climate change and the need for the industry to curb greenhouse gas emissions, he said in an interview. “I think it is becoming an increasingly significant factor that students are considering [in choosing programs].”

Dr. Anne Naeth, PhD, director of Future Energy Systems at the University of Alberta, agreed that students are looking to move away from programs focused only on hydrocarbons, although she added that there will still be a need for such programming.

“Students are interested in alternative sources of energy, in understanding that bigger picture of energy systems and the energy transition,” she said.

Revamped programs encompass sustainability, other forms of energy

The University of Calgary is now looking at incorporating other forms of energy, along with broader skills, a focus on digitization and an emphasis on sustainability, into its chemical engineering and energy engineering programs, according to Sen.

At the same time, Sen stressed that the university is not abandoning training students in oil and gas. Many of the university’s faculty are working on oil and gas research projects focused on sustainability and will maintain their strong relationships with industry, he said.

Memorial University is updating its master’s program in oil and gas engineering, to including key aspects of sustainability and related areas, such as “ocean digitalization” aimed at improving efficiency and reducing GHG emissions in Newfoundland’s offshore petroleum industry, according to Naterer.

Memorial is incorporating forms of green energy in its undergraduate petroleum program, and has launched a new graduate program in energy systems engineering that broadens students’ exposure to other energy systems, Naterer said. Oil and gas programs are also being designed to accommodate new courses on clean energy and technologies to mitigate emissions, he added.

“These programs still are important to us, because they allow students to learn how to drive positive change in the oil and gas sector and help the industry to become greener and more sustainable,” Naterer said.

At the University of Alberta, Naeth said the university is developing transdisciplinary programming focused on energy systems, potentially including micro-credentials, an introductory-level course offered across all the university’s energy programs and a course-based master’s degree.

U of Alberta also plans to develop a MOOC (massive open online course) on energy systems that would be available in 2022 and help increase energy literacy, according to Naeth. “The new programming is really giving a bigger, broader picture of what the energy system looks like now, what it could look like, and the steps that we need to get there,” she said.

R$