2YR - 4YR ENGINEERING/TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PILOT

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract: Taking full advantage of community colleges as sources of science and engineering majors is an important component of the nation?s science and technology policy. President Obama has emphasized the criticality of science and technology to the nation?s future competitiveness and welfare, the importance of community colleges within US higher education, and his intention to focus on community colleges as a key part of his strategy to increase the number of college graduates. Within the engineering and engineering technology communities, the most critical role of community colleges is as feeders to baccalaureate engineering and engineering technology programs. Indeed, some states (e.g., California and Florida) explicitly depend on community colleges as a key pathway for students seeking baccalaureate degrees in all fields. The intellectual merit of this effort is to conduct a pilot surveying of 2-year and 4-year colleges about enrollments, degree attainments, and transfers by e/et students. This can be implemented in a pilot of 50 (35 2-year and 15 4-year) institutions. Data will assist with better understanding and enhancing the role of community colleges in contributing to the baccalaureate engineering population. The immediate impact of this project will be on determining e/et key data from a pilot population of community college e/et students and their transfer to baccalaureate e/et programs.