Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) Proposal to Implement & Evaluate Models for Business Engagement to Increase Undergraduate STEM Student Persistence

Business-Higher Education Forum, Washington

Investigators

Abstract

Since the business sector has been a largely underutilized resource in improving undergraduate STEM education and there is little research on industry-higher education partnerships, the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) seeks to address these gaps. Through this project BHEF is (1) integrating implementation and research efforts on persistence and degree attainment in STEM and (2) supporting and examining a set of business-higher education partnerships with particular attention to the transfer of students from 2-year institutions to 4-year institutions in programs of study that impact areas of national interest. The project focuses on the implementation and examination of evidence-based interventions (e.g., curricular strategies/activities and student support services) designed to support student persistence and degree attainment. Towards these ends BHEF has formed the Undergraduate STEM Interventions with Industry (US2I) consortium to develop, implement, and examine evidence-based models of strategic, effective, and sustainable engagement of industries in curricular strategies/activities and student support services designed to increase STEM student persistence and degree completion. The key questions addressed in this R&D project are: (1) In what ways are the different models of business-higher education partnerships effective in addressing the problems of persistence and graduation in STEM? (2) What are the essential elements of business-higher education partnerships that ensure sustainability and effectiveness? (3) How useful is Designed-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) as a method for research and development of interventions supported by industry-higher education partnerships? (4) What are the strengths and limitations of migration analysis techniques in tracking and assessing the transfer of students from 2-year institutions to 4-year programs and degree attainment in STEM? A quantitative and qualitative mixed methods rsearch design will collect data on student academic progress, higher education institutional and systems processes, individual corporate engagement, efficacy of industry consortia, and involvement of corporate and academic leadership. The study integrates survey research, focus groups, interviews, and student tracking methodologies to examine five business-higher education pilot efforts. Analyses will be conducted using a suite of strategies that will include multiple regression, student migration analysis, modeling, and within-case and cross-case analyses. BHEF is a national organization of Fortune 500 CEOs and university presidents. Building on past and current activities, the five BHEF partnerships and domains of interests are: (1) City University of New York & IBM: Large-scale data analytics and urban sustainability; (2) Miami-Dade College & New Era Energy: Information technology and cybersecurity; (3) University of Massachusetts & the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership: Life science, engineering, and computer science; (4) University of Wisconsin & the Milwaukee Water Council: Water Science; and (5) Washington University in St. Louis & Boeing: Engineering.