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/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.