The Importance of Engineering Talent to the Prosperity and Security of the Nation by Steve Olson

Author:Steve Olson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The National Academies Press
Published: 2014-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

The recruitment and retention of students to engineering education and engineering careers were prominent topics of discussion. Many students come to college with an interest in engineering, often because of the potential of engineering to solve societally important problems. But an estimated 40 percent of the students who intend to get an undergraduate degree in science or engineering abandon that intention by the end of their first year, noted Suresh, which is “a huge issue today in all universities.” The engineering curriculum tends to be inflexible, requiring that students take a particular sequence of classes. And options available in other disciplines, such as a junior semester abroad, are not easy to do in most engineering departments. “The apparent inflexibility of the curriculum, the rigidity of the curriculum, and the demands of the curriculum have turned a lot of students off,” said Suresh.

Engineering education also can impose onerous demands on students in graduate school, especially if the time required to earn a graduate degree and acquire experience is extended. As Banholzer pointed out, those who pursue an undergraduate degree, graduate degree, and one or more postdoctoral fellowships may not get their first job until they are in their thirties, making law, medicine, finance, and other professions more attractive to many young people.

Broers agreed that students are in college and universities to get an education. Unless graduate students want to teach in a university, Broers said, “the PhD should be shortened and those people should get out and start producing things as soon as possible.”

Another factor that can stymie aspiring engineers is a focus during their education on fields where an oversupply of engineers exists. Faculty members can contribute to such oversupplies by pursuing popular research topics, Banholzer noted. Engineers who are broadly trained can shift among fields, but those who have specialized on narrow topics may find themselves in trouble.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.