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Session 2286

Tracking Engineering 2+ Students

Caroline Hembel Beard Georgia Southern University

Abstract

Any institution that tracks students who transfer from a 2+ program to a full engineering program faces an additional burden in attempting to document program success rates. In the past an institution might simply choose to ignore its 2+ programs when reporting student completion in its annual IPEDS-GRS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Graduate Rate Survey) report. Beginning with the 1999 report, the US Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics requires that IPEDS-GRS include data on transfer students, treating transfer programs in the same manner as associate degree programs. This obligation to report introduces a number of complex tracking issues for institutions with such programs, in that students who begin their college careers in transfer programs frequently take a path other than completion of the 2+ program, acceptance by the sister institution, and graduation with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.

IPEDS-GRS compliance places institutions with 2+ transfer programs in a position of having to justify the completion rate from such programs. Any institution with a transfer program would therefore be wise to avoid the appearance of a high drop-out or failure rate by tracking 2+ students’ completion and success rates beyond its boundaries. Obstacles to such tracking include the following: • Multiple, shifting, and conflicting data sources that may result in loss of student completion information or render any information suspect. • Federal regulations that do not appear to make any provision for calculating time-to-completion for co-op students. • Transfer program students who apply to 4-year programs independently. • Students who enroll in an engineering transfer program but change majors. • No institutional structure in place for following a student whose ultimate success occurs after that student has left the originating institution. This paper discusses some options for more accurately portraying the success of students who initially enroll in transfer programs.

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright @ 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Beard, C. H. (2001, June), Tracking Engineering 2+ Students Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9911