Expanding the education pathway to undergraduate engineering through strategic two-year and four-year institution partnerships

Abstract

To enhance the minority participation in undergraduate engineering, strategic partnerships with community colleges have been identified as an essential component in the U.S. STEM Education system with a total of 1,738 2-year institutions: 967 public, 100 non-profit and 671 private.1 In 2012, there were over 20 million students enrolled in an academic institution across the United States with over 6 million being educated at a two-year public institution.2 These public two-year institutions also have a large population of underrepresented minorities with approximately 34% of the total number of African Americans enrolled in an academic institution and 46% of the total number of Hispanics students enrolled in academic institutions.3 In addition to expanding underrepresented minority participation through institutional partnerships with two-year public institutions, 33% of the total female population that was enrolled at an academic institution was enrolled in a two-year public institution.3 The state of Texas is positioned to be a key contributor to the overall increase in the both the number of STEM graduates and the increased number of underrepresented minorities graduating with a STEM degree, for four reasons: 1) Texas is ranked second in the nation as having the largest number of public community colleges1, 2) Texas will experience the largest headcount growth of high school graduates over the next ten years with over 87,000 additional graduates by 20254, 3) As of 2010, Texas is one of five majority-minority states and 4) In fall 2014, Texas was noted as having the second highest estimated enrollment across the Nation with 1,442,610 students, second to California whose estimated fall 2014 enrollment was 2,497,958.5 In response to this anticipated growth and the increased demand for engineers, a co-enrollment Engineering Academy was successfully launched in fall 2013, through a strategic partnership between Texas A&M University Dwight Look College of Engineering and Blinn College-Bryan. The inaugural class consisted of 113 prospective engineering students. By 2014, after a full year of participation in the program, 21% of the participants successfully matriculated into their major of choice within the Look College. Forty-four percent remained in the program as co-enrolled students, taking courses at both institutions. Unfortunately, 35% of the participants were not retained in the program due to grades (19%), voluntarily opting out of the program (13%), or choosing to not return as a continuing student (3%). A comparative review of the Engineering Academy against other engineering co-enrollment programs across the state of Texas will be discussed, as well as retention and matriculation data from both the fall 2013 and 2014 cohorts.