Offering An International Degree Program As A Dual Degree With Liberal Arts
- Conference
- Location
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Chicago, Illinois
- Publication Date
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June 18, 2006
- Start Date
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June 18, 2006
- End Date
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June 21, 2006
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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International
- Page Count
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6
- Page Numbers
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11.969.1 - 11.969.6
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--613
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/613
- Download Count
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333
Paper Authors
Thomas Siller Colorado State University
Thomas J. Siller is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He has been a faculty member at Colorado State University since 1988.
Gearold Johnson Colorado State University
Gearold R. Johnson is the Emeritus George T. Abell Endowed Chair in Engineering and Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU). He holds B.S.A.E., M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University. He was on the faculty at CSU from 1971 until his retirement in 1994. From 1994 until his retirement in 2002, he was the Academic Vice-President of the National Technological University.
Amy Pruden Colorado State University
Amy Pruden is an Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Colorado State University. She holds a B.S., Biology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, and a Ph.D., Environmental Science, August 2002, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH. She recently was awarded a Globe Award for Contribution to Internationalization of Colorado State.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
OFFERING AN INTERNATIONAL DEGREE PROGRAM AS A DUAL DEGREE WITH LIBERAL ARTS
Introduction
The need for internationalizing engineering education is an important topic for engineering educators. This is not a new issue, the National Academy of Engineering issued a report 18 years ago calling for greater international opportunities for U.S. engineering students1. Qamhiyah2 cites two reasons for the continued importance for an international experience in engineering education: 1) the increasing trend for engineering firms to be transnational, and 2) the growth in the number of jobs being outsourced overseas. If engineers are going to be successful in an increasingly global profession, they must be prepared to work for multinational engineering firms and on teams of engineers that can be located anywhere on the globe. For engineering educators, one of the goals must be to design and implement opportunities for our students to gain an international understanding during their undergraduate degree programs.
The are several approaches being taken to accomplishing this goal: 1) student exchange and study abroad programs, 2) distributed international engineering teams3, 3) international internships, 4) joint degree programs between multiple universities, 5) joint language and engineering degrees4 and 6) and engineering curricula designed specifically to address international issues5,6. This paper presents details of a program recently developed at Colorado State University that uses several of these approaches.
Degree Implementation
In 2003 Colorado State University started a new International Engineering and International Studies program. This new degree program is housed within the Engineering Science program –an interdisciplinary program that spans the College of Engineering. It is a five-year joint program comprising 156 credit hours with students earning both a BS degree in Engineering Science with a concentration in International Engineering and a BA in Liberal Arts.
As a requirement of the Liberal Arts degree, students are required to get a minor in a foreign language. In addition to the language minor, courses related to international topics are also taken. Table 1 lists the required liberal arts courses that are then supplemented with a series of electives from liberal arts. In addition to these courses there are several courses required for the general education requirements that all university graduates must satisfy.
Students have considerable flexibility when designing the engineering curriculum for this degree program. This program emphasizes broadness instead of specialization.
Siller, T., & Johnson, G., & Pruden, A. (2006, June), Offering An International Degree Program As A Dual Degree With Liberal Arts Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--613
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