Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

The Higher Education Job Market for Engineering Education Program Graduates Abstract The potential job market in colleges and universities is investigated for graduates of new certificate, M.S., and Ph.D. programs in Engineering Education. Data sources include positions posted to engineering education listservs over a recent one year period and an anonymous survey of engineering academic deans. The results suggest that engineering education program graduates will be competitive for a variety of staff and faculty positions in colleges and schools of engineering. However, availability of tenure-track positions will be limited, as a Ph.D. in the discipline is generally required and very few Engineering Education departments currently exist. (This paper also discusses an engineering education certificate for graduates in traditional engineering disciplines. These graduates remain competitive for faculty positions in the discipline of their Ph.D. degree.) Despite negative comments about how engineering education graduates will fit into the current university faculty structure, there is support for the new engineering education M.S. and Ph.D. degrees and evidence that graduates will be considered for a variety of positions at four-year institutions.

Introduction Recent years have seen the emergence of engineering education graduate programs and departments, including those at Purdue University1, Virginia Tech2, and the Ph.D. granting partners of the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (Utah State University, University of Georgia, University of Illinois, and University of Minnesota)3. Though applications and informal inquiries attest to the interest in these programs, the question remains as to where (and whether) engineering education graduates will find work. Specifically, the research questions for this study were:

• What types of positions in higher education settings, including faculty positions, might be available to engineering education program graduates? • Will engineering education graduates be accepted as competitive applicants for these positions? • What job market considerations might guide the development of engineering education degree programs and the advising of engineering education students?

To answer these questions and triangulate the results, two different data sources were used. Position vacancies were tracked to estimate the number and type of positions available, while engineering academic deans were surveyed regarding their perceptions of how competitive engineering education graduates might be for these positions.

Method There were two main sources of data in this study. The first was position vacancies posted to various listservs:

1. Wepan-l, the announcement email list for WEPAN, Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network. All but three positions in this study were posted to this list. 2. The ASEE Educational Research Methods Division list.

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Borrego, M. (2006, June), The Higher Education Job Market For M.S. And Ph.D. Engineering Education Program Graduates Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--330