Oil Boom Meets Classroom

After surviving years of slumping enrollment, petroleum engineering (PE) programs are growing again.  A booming industry means students are enrolling in record numbers and programs are scrambling to hire faculty to meet the demand.

Texas Tech University’s Petroleum Engineering Department is preparing to launch a new fundraising campaign to address the global and national workforce issues surrounding the oil and gas industry.

By the Numbers

Nearly 3,700 undergraduate students nationwide enrolled in petroleum engineering programs (PE) for the current academic year, the largest enrollment since the mid-1980s, said Lloyd Heinze, distinguished member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and chairman of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech University.

At Texas Tech, undergraduate enrollment has grown more than 700 percent since the all time low of 60 in 1991.

“By next year, if the trend stays the same, Texas Tech will break our record enrollment of 531 set in 1983,” Heinze said.

Nationally, PE enrollments peaked in the mid-1980s. Only 16 accredited programs remain of the 33 that existed in 1983, with less than half of the full-time teaching staff left to meet the demand.

“There were about 33 programs in the U.S. that offered an option or degree in petroleum engineering in 1983, with a peak enrollment of more than 11,000 students. Enrollment skidded to fewer than 1,800 students nationwide by 1991, while numbers of faculty plummeted from about 230 full-time teaching staff to a low of 110,” Heinze said.

Six-Figure Salaries, Career Opportunities

PE graduates are virtually guaranteed employment at six-figure starting salaries. Most new hires can expect annual salaries upwards of $100,000, with excellent long term career prospects as well.

Baby boomer demographics have caused companies to have a large amount of graying employees, Heinze said.

“Oil and gas companies have employees in their late 40s to early 60s with a tremendous amount of experience going out the door when they retire,” Heinze said. “If you graduated in the last 3-10 years, you will have tremendous opportunities much earlier in your career.”

Add to this the lure of exotic job locations and the fact that countries around the world are clamoring for more oil than ever, and Heinze believes the enrollment upswing will continue.

But, he adds his hopes that growth will happen at a slow, sustainable rate rather than in a bubble like the one that emerged in 1984.