Education for Technological Competitiveness

The need for achieving a more internationally responsive outlook must be understood and acted upon throughout the system for engineering education in the United States. Changes in attitude and approach will be required at all stages, including high school, college, graduate school and continuing education programs, to achieve a set of offerings and opportunities that will enable U.S. engineers to function competitively throughout their careers. Several programs already provide examples of successful approaches to the education of globally oriented engineers. Languages and Culture Along with the essential foundation of science and mathematics training in secondary schools, the usefulness of early study of languages and experience that reinforces language skills needs to be better appreciated by young people who wish to pursue careers in engineering and technology. The committee recommends maintaining traditional U.S. education in Asian languages, especially Japanese, for engineers at all levels. These languages usually require more years of study for Americans to attain competence than do European languages, so the need to start early is especially evident. For example, the age at which a commitment is required for an American to attain fluency is usually considered to be under 20 years. In general, language training is most effective early in an education; in other countries English is usually acquired as part of grade-school education. In fact, the United States needs to achieve a good balance of skills among its engineers and technologists in a range of languages. Career counselors in high schools and engineering colleges should emphasize the value of foreign-language skills when students consider elective courses. Graduate degree programs should emphasize spoken and technical reading competency in at least one foreign language. Study of a language should be joined with learning about the culture with which it is associated. Indeed, for engineers who may not have the time to acquire foreign language skills, learning about foreign cultures may still be of great value for the practice of their profession. Many foreign students are present on U.S. campuses, includ ing about half of all doctoral students in engineering (see chart), and large numbers of practicing engineers in the United States originally were foreign nationals. These groups offer outstanding opportunities for fellow U.S. students and colleagues to learn both about foreign cultures and engineering needs and practices around the world. U.S. organizations and individual engineers should draw on this dynamic resource to learn about progress and aspirations abroad as they study and work among us. On-Campus Opportunities Many U.S. colleges and graduate schools offer outstanding training in engineering and technology. Indeed, the eagerness of students from abroad to attend U.S. schools is evidence of the quality of the experience available on our campuses. Yet, many of even our best schools could further strengthen the international outlook of their engineering students and faculty. And for the instituions that are less engaged in research, yet produce a large percentage of our practicing engineers, major opportunities exist for improvement. The current four-year undergraduate curriculum in engineering is already crowded. The principal means for enhancing undergraduate international exposure is not, therefore, through introducing more requirements. A more practical solution is to change the mindset of administrations, faculty, and students toward a more international view. Two approaches to this end are: 1. Educational institutions concerned with engineering and technology at all levels should establish means of assessing their international capabilities, involvements, and needs for improvements. 2. Groups performing academic program evaluations (such as departmental visiting committees, NSF review bodies, and evaluators of the Accreditation Board on Engineering and Technology) should examine the extent to which both the formal curriculum and extracurricular activities convey to students a sensitivity to the international nature of engineering and technology. Industrial recruiters are another group that could exercise constructive leverage on the international content of engineering education. If recruiters were to ask candidates for employment about their familiarity with engineering progress abroad with expectations of a positive response, subsequent student interest most likely would be swift and beneficial. One mechanism that might be useful in this context is the establishment of programs granting certificates for students who have developed a capability in a foreign language and culture. The Need for a Campus Focus The various opportunities described above would be significantly enhanced if on every major engineering school campus in this country there were an office with responsibility for establishing an international perspective in engineering and technology, and for providing information on international programs and development. The committee recommends that major U.S. engineering schools that do not already have an international engineering information center consider establishing one and, if one already exists, publicizing the importance of its function. The committee also encourages the development on campus of new cooperative efforts between engineering schools and other academic units. For example, it is desimble for engineering schools to establish closer ties with institutes concerned with studies of geographic regions, such as the Pacific Rim countries. Students might also be attracted to new two-year or three-year graduate programs in international engineering management. U.S. engineering educators should also be more aggressive in learning from education programs developed in other countries. By way of example, technical universities in the Netherlands are developing an impressive series of one-year graduate programs focussed on specific technologies selected with the cooperation of industry and the engineering professional societies. Career-Long Education and Training Education continues throughout any successful engineering career by many mechanisms, including courses and programs offered by corporations, professional societies, universities and commercial vendors. In most cases, however, there is room in these activities for stronger emphasis on international factors. One example might be increased use of Engineering Foundation and Gordon-type conferences to provide exposure to international developments. Such concentrated experiences, in which participants interact intensively for a week in a relatively isolated location, are excellent opportunities for learning and building contacts. Although these conferences should remain largely self-supporting, as they are at present, it is recommended that NSF play a more catalytic role in the further “internationalization” of educational opportunities for engineering professionals by providing funding for foreign or U.S. speakers to prepare and present reviews of international developments. Excerpted with permission from Strengthening U.S. Engineering Through International Cooperation: Some Recommendations for Action, a report of the National Academy of Engineering’s Committee on International Cooperation in Engineering. Copies of the report can be obtained from the Office of Administration and Finance, National Academy of En- gineering, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N. W, Washington, D.C. 20418.

Education for Technological Competitiveness

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November 1987

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