In a climate where criticism is leveled at the quality of students coming out of schools and universities across the world, I’d like to stand up for the oceanography graduate—I think they are among the best. At Southampton, I lecture from first through to fourth (final) year and see the output we produce, and in the main, it is pretty good. Yes, we all get the occasional student who would serve oceanography well as the anchorman for a deep-sea mooring, but compared to other science students, the average oceanographer often excels—I know, as my classes often include students from other disciplines.

Boxall, S. 2007. The oceanography classroom: Oceanographers are talented—eventually. Oceanography 20(4):168–169, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2007.21.

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