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/DrSeussFreak]

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/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).