GRADUATE students on the University of Oklahoma’s new MBA Energy programme may aspire to designer suits and trading energy-futures contracts, but first they have to get their hands dirty – on the drill floor – while on the course. It is an initiative that UK universities such as Aberdeen, Robert Gordon, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt will find hard to emulate because of the nature of the North Sea industry. But perhaps it is something to consider, bearing in mind the Weatherford test, training and accreditation facility in Aberdeen.
Oilman Ronnie Irani, an Oklahoma petroleum-engineering graduate who helped design the innovative MBA Energy curriculum, says this approach is the way to get students to understand the sweat, hard work and money that goes into extracting oil&gas resources.
Field trips to a natural-gas processing plant and a power plant are also planned for the class.
This is the only programme of its type in the US – apparently. Food for thought here, perhaps?