About 8000 cadets and students study at Odessa National Maritime Academy (ONMA). The annual graduation is about 1000 specialists.The Academy was accredited by the State Accreditation Board of Ukraine with accreditation level IV (the highest).

 The specialties of automation, ships' engineering, electromechanical and radio-electronic faculties were accredited by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology of Great Britain (IMarEST) with the "charter engineer", - the highest level, and the faculty of Navigation was accredited by the Nautical Institute of Great Britain (NI).

The studies are carried out according to the graded system. The terms of studies are the following: four years for bachelor, five and a half years for specialist and master. The system of ship's crew training is in compliance with the requirements of the International Convention of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW -78/ 95) and other international conventions which give graduates the right to work on all types of vessels of native and foreign companies.

ONMA comprises eight faculties, Azov Maritime Institute (the city of Mariupol), Izmail faculty, Training and Certifying Centre for Seafarers and Technical Fleet College. Besides such centers as Survival under Extreme Conditions at Sea, Information Consulting Centre, Maritime Training Centre of Ships' Power Installations, Special Technologies for Ships' Technical Maintenance Arrangement, publishing One-"Issue-Inform", GMDSS Educational & Training centre, Sports and Recreational Centre and the Centre of Medical Examination and Rehabilitation were created.

Considerable time of training process is devoted to simulator training in accordance with the STCW-78/95 (Section A-I/12 "Standards that Set out Simulators' Usage" and Section B-I/12 "Guide on Simulator’s Usage").

Navigation cadets use different programmes based on complex radar simulators RLS and ARPA of the firms "Norcontrol" (Norway) and "Transas Marine" (Great Britain, Russia).