Tackling the current lack of uniform standards, officials from universities in Brazil, Singapore, Scotland, Australia and Norway met at the University of Houston (UH) as part of the new “Global Subsea University Alliance”.
The lack of standards hurts companies’ recruiting processes, said Matt Franchek of UH’s Cullen College of Engineering.

“When you’re hiring a mechanical engineer, you know what you’re hiring,” he said. “When you hire an electrical engineer, you know what you’re hiring. But when you hire a subsea engineer, you don’t know what you’re hiring. Everybody has their own version or variation.”

In coordination with industry, the alliance will establish a global subsea engineering curriculum.

The first step, Franchek said, is a detailed evaluation of the world’s top subsea engineering programs, all of which belong to the alliance.

They include Australia’s Curtin University, Brazil’s Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the National University of Singapore, Scotland’s University of Aberdeen, and Norway’s Bergen and Stavanger universities.

Subsea companies Cameron and FMC Technologies also attended the inauguration in Houston.

The alliance will form committees to establish standards for specialties, such as flow assurance, subsea processing and system design and control.

Members of the alliance are also expected to offer online courses and allow credits to transfer among the group. These agreements will let engineers continue their education even if they transfer to a new location.

Mr Franchek said universities who join the alliance will help their students benefit from the credentials offered by a globally-recognised curriculum.

Given a choice, he asked, “which one are you going to hire? You’re going to hire the known entity rather than the unknown one. That’s what we’re trying to do for the oil and gas business and for our students.”

The UH Cullen College of Engineering started America’s first academic program in subsea engineering in 2011 and in 2012 began offering the country’s first master’s degree in the subject focussing on the equipment and infrastructure used in offshore petroleum production.

UH has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with National University of Singapore to collaborate on education and research.