A Study of Undergraduate Fire Service Degree Programs in the United States

Recent national efforts to coordinate and promote higher education in the fire service led to this national survey of fire service degree programs. The main purpose of the study was to gather descriptive information concerning fire service degree programs offered at two-year and four-year accredited institutions. A second purpose of the study was to identify the perceptions fire service degree program coordinators/directors hold concerning current and future issues affecting their programs. The information collected as part of the study can be used in a variety of ways from benchmarking among fire service degree programs to assistance and support with policy formation at the local, state, and federal level. The purpose of the study was achieved as the data collected provides an in-depth snapshot of the current status of fire service degree programs in the United States. Data were collected in the following five areas: Degree Program Information, Student Information, Faculty Information, Distance Education Information, and Program Directors/Coordinators Perceptions.

Sturtevant grew up in North Gorham, Maine, and was graduated for Gorham High School in 1978. He began his fire-fighting career with four years in the United States Air Force. He then moved to California in 1982 where he continued his fire-fighting career as a Captain and then Battalion Chief of Operations with Southern California Edison's San Onofre Fire Department. In 1987 he moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, were he spent four years with the Tennessee Valley Authority as Fire Protection Specialist and then Senior Instructor. He earned a bachelor degree from Tusculum College, Greenville, Tennessee, in 1988. In the summer of 1989, he began working for Chattanooga State Technical Community College (CSTCC) as the Coordinator of Fire Science Technology. In 1993 he earned a Master Degree in Public Administration online bachelor degree at West Texas A&M University.