Operations Research Education: Some Requirements and Deficiencies

In recent years some operations researchers have directed their introspection to the education of prospective OR analysts, with a resultant critical appraisal: they are ill prepared to solve problems. The purpose of this paper is to continue this introspection by presenting some conjectures on the education of the OR analyst. After examining the problem-solving process briefly and defining some requisite terminology, it gives a premise on which educational requirements for the OR analyst rest, suggests areas in which his education is deficient, discusses some reasons for these deficiencies, and notes some possible courses of remedial action.