Successful
Article

Successful

It is possible. Attracting many students with a mainly scientific curriculum in a particular area – Western Europe - where most young people want to do something in the ‘media’ or maybe with ‘law’. ENSTA Bretagne proves pessimists wrong with close to 40 Cat. A level students every year and this number is increasing; figures unknown to other institutes. It is good news, because we will need many new hydrographers in the future and over the past few years the number of new entrants to hydrography courses was cause for doom and gloom. Nicolas Seube is co-ordinator of the hydrography course in Brest, France and shares his thoughts on how to model a good and successful course in this issue of Hydro International. Reaching out to colleague institutes by co-operating and offering exchange projects for students. Educating students to a highly scientific level, where applied mathematics, physics and information technologies are very important. Organising summer camps in the South of France where surveys are done under the supervision of and with sponsorship from companies. It is a good mix of practical and theoretical education with one goal, namely, delivering high quality hydrographers to the field in order for them to keep an eye on quality of data acquired for a variety of applications. For ENSTA Bretagne, formerly Ensieta, things are working out very well. To all other institutes, that may be suffering from a decreasing number of students, read and learn from the tips of Seube!

It is good to hear from key people like Seube, who make important contributions to keeping hydrography on the map. Hydrographic data are immensely important in forming the foundation, not just for safety of navigation, but also for offshore renewables, oil&gas, habitat mapping and possibly for the majority of business done at sea. To maintain a key role in this blue economy, we need highly qualified professionals able to detect errors in datasets, to manage projects and to lead the views in research & development. It may be true that a complete hydrographical education is not always necessary for operating the hardware and software needed for acquiring the data, but without enough of these scientifically skilled professionals data-acquiring and processing becomes a black box. Seube and his colleagues may want to point out this very important role of the hydrographer in the blue economy. This could be a selling point to students who are hesitant and unsure as to what they should chose for their future working life. Hydrography is still a little-known profession. Not only at universities are hydrography courses often in the minority. Also in the outside world – even in adjacent fields – you can see the question marks popping up: hydrography? Never heard of! For those who have the capability and love the sea, hydrography is a perfect chance to put those brains where the heart is. It will most likely end in a successful and fulfilling career.

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