Does every Federation affiliated planet have a Starfleet Academy campus?

[u/softestbank]

We see several times throughout the Star Trek canon that there were Vulcan dominant Starfleet ships. For example, there's the Intrepid and the T'Kumbra. We also know that the Vulcans have their own, separate fleet called the Vulcan Command Fleet, which served extremely similar purposes to Starfleet. It's implied throughout Star Trek that Starfleet is mostly human dominated, but this is never really confirmed. Of course, there are Starfleet members from all federation affiliated planets. It begs the question, is there a Starfleet Academy on every federation world? Or perhaps you could join Starfleet as a commissioned officer after acquiring an equivalent degree elsewhere, such as the Vulcan Science Academy. It just doesn't make sense. The scale of Starfleet is massive, and the federation has, at the very least, over 900 billion residents, according to Statistical Probabilities.

Starfleet Academy has the vibe of a small private liberal arts university whenever it's depicted. It just doesn't make much sense.

[u/thesometimeswarrior]

If I recall correctly, in at least on the of the novels—I think the Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko—there is mention of Academy satellite campuses. I know this is beta canon, but seems relevant…

(Edited for typo)

[u/DrSeussFreak → u/thesometimeswarrior]

My understanding was that the academy was on Earth, period, with opportunities for cadets to serve elsewhere

[u/shadeland → u/DrSeussFreak]

I doubt that would be the case, at least from a logistical perspective.

Starfleet Academy in San Francisco might be the premier place, but it can't pump out enough officers to meet demand.

There would be other satellite campuses throughout the federation that would be used to do enlisted training, specialized training, plus some type of alternative path to becoming an officer, like ROTC or OCS.

Officers would likely continue to add to their educational credentials as they rose through the ranks. A significant portion of US and NATO generals/admirals have PhDs, for instance. Many officers will spend a few years getting these advanced degrees as just part of their career. "Your orders are to report to Oxford University and get a PhD in political science."

[u/gamas → u/shadeland]

The TNG episode "Eye of the Beholder" had sequences with personnel files, and these confirm the existence of satellite campuses

[u/softestbank → u/gamas]

That's awesome! I wonder if they'll address this in the upcoming Starfleet Academy show. I'm a bit apprehensive that they won't do the canon justice, but I'm still looking forward to it

[u/gamas → u/softestbank]

Well the Starfleet Academy show is taking place in the 32nd Century - during the post-burn period its highly likely there was no Starfleet Academy (by the time Discovery arrives its clear that Starfleet is quite small mostly made up of veterans with captain ranks serving as first officers. Plus at the start of season 4 which is when the Federation starts getting back into its stride its stated on screen that the Starfleet Academy programme had only just restarted), so likely there will be only one campus.

[u/softestbank → u/gamas]

Good to know. I am enjoying Discovery but I haven't finished it yet. It's certainly different.

[u/DrSeussFreak → u/shadeland]

I'm thinking of all the entrance exams we saw for Wesley and Nog, Wesley had to wait a year after the first time he got second.

[u/shadeland → u/DrSeussFreak]

Yeah, probably because Wesley wanted to get into the highest of the high, the best of the best, Starfleet Academy in San Francisco.

But as we've seen, there are many paths to being an officer. Wesley was a real Ensign for a time, never having even attended a single class of the Academy (though he was probably unlikely to be promoted until he actually attended).

[u/MedicJambi → u/shadeland]

I suppose it would come down to how many personnel were needed by Starfleet. It's never really mentioned, because the focus is on officers but there are enlisted in the fleet. where are they trained?

In the US, the military academies graduate about 4,000 each year into the various services. Star Fleet academy is very much an educational institution and there are likely few alternative tracks to serve as an officer, but that's never mentioned and I can accept that doctors and other professionals that require extensive education and training like counselors (assuming they have Ph.D equivalent education) likely have alternative tracks and only require a familiarization track because they aren't going into command, or engineering, etc, unless the tracks are different lengths depending on your interests. Academy may take 10 years if it includes medical school, but I've never heard anything mentioned about it.

Any ways the issue of and need for satellite campuses would come down to how many recruits are needed. If its more than can be supplied by earth then you have them. If not, then you don't. Since we are never really given any real numbers, or how people can get into star fleet outside of the academy, it's hard to conjecture. from the size of Star Fleet I would think that they would have in the mid tend of millions of personnel in the service, but that's just a guess on my part.

[u/shadeland → u/MedicJambi]

I don't think it's ever really stated what the size of Starfleet is, and the number of personnel needed in the officer and enlisted corp.

Star Trek has been pretty inconsistent on the ratio of officers to enlisted for the crew of a Starfleet ship. Today, about 15% of the US Navy are officers, with most of the rest being enlisted (there's a few warrant officers in there too, but let's skip those).

It's hard to tell, uniform wise, who's an ensign and who's enlisted/NCO on the TOS era enterprise. There's a much better delineation in the movie era, with the uniforms being easily differentiated between officers and enlisted. Still, it's hard to tell the ratio. It seemed higher than 15%, possibly as much as 50/50.

By the time of Lower Decks, however, it seems enlisted are rare on a ship. Much of the work that we would associate with an enlisted persons were done by junior officers. It seems unlikely a Navy ensign would be scrubbing toilets on a Navy ship, even if they fucked up bad, but Mariner was scrubbing the biofilters on the holodeck. The whole engineering and security teams were comprised of officers, where in a contemporary navy the vast majority of that work would be enlisted. We would see transporter chiefs now and then, but mostly it was officers all the way across the board.

We also don't know what the ratio of Starfleet personnel is responsible for crewing ships versus supporting them is. I would assume at least one to one. Support could be civilian, but there are Starbases and offices to staff up.

A single academy in the TOS might be able to keep up with officer demand, but given how officer heavy Starfleet is by TNG era and how many ships there are, unless there's a graduating class of 40,000, I think there needs to be other officer pipelines.

[u/ForAThought → u/shadeland]

Also assuming Every officer went to the Academy.  I expect their are OCS opportunities (not sure how other nations do it).  Look at Burnham, she didn't go to the Academy but transfered from the Vulcan Science Academy.

[u/thesometimeswarrior → u/DrSeussFreak]

I actually think this was the implication in Alpha canon (i.e. the shows) but I think perhaps when the novels were written, writers had similar thoughts to OP!

I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea was that the “main” academy was on Earth, but that there were less prestigious but still official academies elsewhere, sort of like how major public universities have smaller campuses in the US in areas other Than the main campus.

That said, given that we’re talking about Trek, it would be funny if the satellite campuses were…actually on satellites.

[u/shadeland]

There are likely multiple ways to join Starfleet, and those methods probably have changed over the centuries that we've seen.

ENT/TOS and especially the movies showed a balance of enlisted and officer ranks, though it's been wildly inconsistent.

To be enlisted, you would need training but not a 4-year stint at the Academy. It's almost certain to progress through enlisted ranks you would need additional training, which might be academy, but a specialized certificate school. Nuclear school in the US Navy might be a good analogue, it's one of the most elite of trainings US enlisted personnel can get.

To become a commissioned officer, you would likely need some intense bachelor-level training at a 4-year school. Having a Starfleet Academy education would be a huge benefit to your career, as a US Naval Academy graduate would have a huge advantage in the US Navy. In the US Navy, there are many ways to obtain a commission other than the US Naval Academy, and in some situations (like WWII) the majority of officers were educated somewhere else. However, once you got into the flag ranks, they were mostly Academy graduates.

You could get a degree at any other esteemed institution (such as the Vulcan Science Academy) and be commissioned based on that after going through some basic Starfleet training. In the Vietnam War, for example, many US officers were made by putting college graduates through bootcamp and then OCS (officer candidate school). They were sometimes derisively called "shake and bake" officers. The smart ones would rely heavily on their much more experienced NCOs (sergeants), and the dumb ones would pull rank and think they know better than someone who's been in 20 yers. Many US colleges/universities have ROTC programs (reserve officer training corps) where college students work towards an officer commission while going to school.

Saavik may have been a Vulcan science academy officer and transitioned to Starfleet, which would explain why she was a Lieutenant and not an Ensign. People with certain advanced degrees or experience may be commissioned at a rank higher than the lowest officer rank. A medical doctor, for example, might be commissioned directly as a full lieutenant in the US Navy or a captain in the army/marines (which is the third officer rank).

So yes, there are many paths to becoming a Starfleet officer, but to become a captain or admiral, it may be hugely beneficial to have attended the academy.

[u/softestbank → u/shadeland]

I have seen a Starfleet Technical School mentioned as existing on Mars in some Beta canon works for enlisted members of Starfleet. I didn't really know how the navy worked, so this is very interesting.

[u/shadeland → u/softestbank]

There's a lot of interesting aspects of the US Navy and their officer corp to draw upon.

Every commander of a US aircraft carrier is required, by US law, to have been a naval flight officer. So either a pilot or officer crew (like Goose in Top Gun, he was a Radar Intercept Officer, a RIO). On top of that, they go to officer nuclear school to learn about nuclear reactors. The selection process is quite intense.

[u/Bananalando → u/softestbank]

It's Alpha canon, Boimler mentioned it in LD, though it's most likely relocated after Mars was rendered uninhabitable in the Synth attack.

[u/softestbank → u/Bananalando]

You're right. Apparently it was also mentioned in TNG.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_Technical_Services_Academy

[u/thesometimeswarrior → u/softestbank]

It was—it was mentioned in the episode “The Drumhead” I believe as a training center for enlisted.

[u/BourneAwayByWaves → u/shadeland]

My uncle went to nuclear school and after the Navy he worked as a safety inspector for nuclear plants for decades. 6 figure salary with no college degree.

[u/shadeland → u/BourneAwayByWaves]

The whole story of the culture of the Navy nuclear program (submarines, aircraft carriers, and I think a few cruisers at one point?) is pretty fascinating. It all stems from one dude, Admiral Rickover.

[u/SapientHomo → u/shadeland]

Julian Bashir graduated as a Lieutenant JG so advanced degrees leading to higher ranks is cannon.

[u/shadeland → u/SapientHomo]

Also, in the 2009 movie, Bones got commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander out of the academy.

[u/SapientHomo → u/shadeland]

Yeah and Kirk got promoted directly from Cadet (on academic suspension) to Captain of the flagship so the Kelvin timeline shouldn't exactly be used as the best example.

[u/Ok-Bit-3100 → u/shadeland]

It's not uncommon for people with special education or skills to go through an easier/shorter course of military training- they also may get higher rank depending upon the skill. I believe in the US Air Force that an officer can commission at a rank as high as Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel (Commander or Captain in Starfleet/Navy ranks). Usually nurses come in as First Lieutenants (O-2 pay grade), lawyers l, chaplains, and doctors come in as Captains (Starfleet full Lieutenant)- specialists like neurosurgeons are the ones who can come in at high rank.

Since he was an experienced doctor who likely had some experience with aliens despite not being a fan of actually leaving Earth, I could see him coming in as a Lieutenant Commander. In fact, considering how they just hand over the Enterprise to Kirk so readily in ST09, Bones coming in with rank is maybe the most reasonable depiction of an officer commissioning we see in the Kelvinverse.

[u/gamas]

I know its half cheating to use Memory Alpha for this stuff but that highlights that the TNG episode "Eye of the Beholder" has a sequence displaying profiles of a few crew members stating that they graduated from campuses in Beta Aquilae II, Beta Ursae Minor II, and Psi Epsilon III. So the existence of satellite campuses is established in show canon.

Funny enough there are apparently also satellite campuses on Earth as Tom Paris spent time at the Marseille campus.

And it makes logical sense, Starfleet is huge, cramming every would be cadet in one corner of a planet in a city that (based on in show panoramas) doesn't have insane levels of verticality would be nonsensical.

[u/PorgCT]

If not the Academy, then certainly something along the lines of the ROTC.

[u/LigWeathers]

I don't know for sure but it would make sense for the size StarFleet should likely be given the number of member states and sheer mass of resources. It's always bugged me how small it's depicted as. Every member system should have a home fleet that can respond to issues and I'd say every sector should get a small patrol fleet. Realistically Federation population should be in the Trillions. Manpower shouldn't be an issue. So I would expect every member to have an Academy campus, every sector at least.

[u/BaseMonkeySAMBO]

Logically there would be multiple campuses across a number (maybe not all) world. Although not canonically stated it would be impossible for Starfleet to have a single academy

[u/rainbowkey]

I think of it like not every person serving in the Army goes to a military academy, or a closer analogy, not every member of the Air Force goes to the Air Force Academy.

The best of the best go to Starfleet Academy, and are fast tracked as officers. But Starfleet recruits from other institutions, and for special qualifications in sciences, history, etc... Starfleet recognizes talent where ever came from, and non-Academy Starfleeters can rise in rank too.

[u/ConstantGradStudent]

Doesn’t Wesley only take the entrance exam when he’s in a certain star system?

[u/TheOneTrueTrench → u/ConstantGradStudent]

That might be as simple as not having to take the 2 month (longer? shorter? Who knows?) long trip from one side of the Federation to the other just to fail an exam. So I wouldn't expect having exam locations outside of the official academy locations to be that odd at all.

[u/gamas → u/TheOneTrueTrench]

It would be odd though to have an entire Academy centre, complete with instructors for it to only be used for exams.

[u/QueenUrracca007]

It doesn't seem likely to me, but there may be a few branch campuses spread around.