Challenges in Engineering Education:
Growth and Development of Rowan Engineering – Sufficient Access vis-à-vis Hallmarks
The State of New Jersey is a net exporter of college-bound students and continues to address the challenge of providing sufficient higher education access for high school graduates. Rowan University is the premier higher education institution in southern New Jersey and has the only degreed engineering programs in the southern region of the state. Significant aspects of our Engineering College are the low student to faculty ratio, experiential learning and the engineering clinics. The clinics comprise eight semesters of experiential, multi-disciplinary team activities that are managed by responsible faculty. If we envision future growth for Rowan University, it may negatively impact our clinic structure, ability to manage experiential learning and student/faculty ratio. A significant challenge will be to manage growth and development within the hallmarks of our educational experience.
Maintaining Multidisciplinary Focus
The College of Engineering at Rowan University is a multi-disciplinary college. The principle artifact of this structure is that we have programs rather than departments. To an external community (or for data-collection purposes), we appear to be departments, but the program structure allows seamless multi-disciplinary ownership of our clinic structure. We have been very successful as an innovative, active-learning environment, but there are ongoing challenges for meeting discipline needs within this structure. Accreditation guidelines, the movement by ASCE to adopt a "Body of Knowledge" concept and MS requirement for licensing, and significant shifts within chemical engineering to embrace biological paths, all present challenges for our curriculum. At the same time, the focus on "nano" areas, increased interdisciplinary emphasis, students' desire to have social impact as engineers, and the overall interest in sustainability present us with opportunities to continue our innovative approaches. Since decisions such as tenure and promotion general generally have their foundation in a specific discipline, faculty may have concerns over their most successful path, their progress, and their portability as they move through various career opportunities. Addressing concerns inherent to a multi-disciplinary college is an on-going challenge.
Balancing Teaching and Research
The National Academy of Engineering recently focused attention on the need to address the education of the engineer for 2020, with a primary focus on education at the undergraduate level. Rowan University is a Masters University I institution in the Carnegie classification. With a teaching mission, we have also been very successful at maintaining a significant level of research support in the College of Engineering. The College faculty received external funding in FY04 that averaged over $115,000 per person while delivering excellence in engineering education. Among other things, we credit this level of activity to our engineering clinic structure and the strong emphasis on including undergraduates in productive research. However, balancing productivity between teaching and research agendas at our institution presents constant challenges. The dynamic balance between teaching and research along with both perceptions of value and career rewards are areas that we would like to continue to explore and develop.
Funding to Maintain a Modern Engineering Program
This is clearly an issue with higher education in general, but more acute with engineering education. Maintaining a cutting edge engineering program requires state-of-the-art resources (e.g., equipment and laboratories and workspace) and expert faculty (which traditionally are paid at a higher scale). Maintaining a multidisciplinary program with balanced teaching and research expectations in a hands-on environment for students will continue to be a challenge for engineering educators.
Contact Information:
Dr. Dianne Dorland, P.E.
Dean, College of Engineering
Rowan University
Voice: 856-256-5300
Email: dorland@rowan.edu