RAWAT, Banmali1 & LE BIHAN, Jean2
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2 Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieurs de BrestTechnopole Brest –Iroise- CP 15, 29608 Brest Cedex, FRANCE, Jean.Le_Bihan@enib.fr
Abstract: In this paper a new concept of globalization of engineering education similar to business world has been proposed. The requirements, basic structure, possible funding sources, a sample program, new initiative taken by USA and European community and some collaborating universities in Asia and Europe have been discussed in detail.
Keywords: globalization, engineering, exchange, internship, research
Transfer of knowledge and education is very important for growth and development of human civilization. In the modern world the term globalization was adopted by the business world during 80’s after the emergence of Japan as an economic power. It became more common during 90’s and has resulted in a completely changed concept of doing business. Now people look every thing from global perspective rather than narrow regional or national boundaries. The faster and highly reliable means of communication and transportation have shrunk the global distances. The modern information age aided with Internet has completely changed the international business concept. At the same time the present day knowledge has become so complex and interdisciplinary in nature that it is absolutely necessary to interact with colleagues in other countries. International cooperation in every field is becoming increasingly important for industrial and economic development of every nation. Driven by the concept of globalization, lower production cost and huge consumer market within closed proximity, the US industries are moving to developing countries. Once these countries become economically strong, the student migration from these countries to USA and other western universities would decline at a very fast pace especially in graduate programs in engineering and sciences. Most of the US universities are already experiencing this slow down. At the same time the US companies doing business in the developing countries are finding difficulty in recruiting properly trained engineers and other personnel, who are familiar with US methods and are well versed in the local traditions, language, culture and political system. Adopting the concept of globalization of engineering education can solve these two closely linked problems. In this paper a new concept of globalization of engineering education has been investigated.
In the past the industrial and economic growth was limited to USA and other western countries only while rest of the world was reeling under poverty. With the emergence of Japan as a growing economic power in 1980s, a new concept of economic growth known as ”Globalization” was established. The economic focus started shifting to Asian countries with Japan taking lead and Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong closely following. With this new concept of globalization, and open market economy, the industries from western world started establishing their plants in this new found market. The main advantage in this new market was that the production cost was very low compared to Europe and USA and a whole new generation of anxious buyers was easily available. This open market economy concept has also resulted in business exchanges between USA and Europe. This cooperative competition has been successful in expanding the prosperity beyond its limited boundaries as before.
For the success of this new economic concept and in order to obtain maximum benefits from it, trained manpower is absolutely necessary. This is the area where educational institutions have to play an important role. This manpower is not the same as providing to its own country as the language, cultural, political, geographical and historical differences are so varied that it requires a whole new generation of trained people with an entirely different approach. US companies doing business in foreign countries have been finding this difficulty for a long time. Foreign newspapers advertise such positions all the time while very few US newspapers advertise such international positions. Unfortunately US educational institutions did not take this very seriously and have not been able to understand the new problem due to its international nature. The main reason is that the industries picked up the idea of globalization at a faster pace for their market growth and economic survival compared to realization by the universities. Now some universities like University of California, Berkeley and few others have started some concrete steps in this direction by collaborating with foreign universities in China, India, Japan etc. but on a limited basis. Most of the time it is mainly due to efforts of individual faculty members or administrators who are originally form those countries and still have close ties to them. Still the US universities are unable to realize that ultimately they will have to enter the global market especially in engineering, sciences and business. There are two main reasons for this: (i) once the developing countries become prosperous and their working and living conditions improve close to the level of western countries, they will stop going abroad for higher education and (ii) US and other companies doing business in these new economic growth countries would prefer to hire locally trained manpower rather than import from USA as they are familiar with local languages, culture, work ethics and political systems unlike their US colleagues. Even the scientists and engineers originally from these countries but trained and lived in USA for a while are not as suitable due to time gap and enormous changes taking place during their absence from that country. Most of the European universities and even the US universities are already seeing the decline of Asian students in their graduate programs while few years back that was the main market for graduate student recruitment. Some universities have started intensive recruitment programs in Asian countries. But this is a short term remedy not the permanent solution of the problem. It is just like in the beginning US companies had their local business representatives in the respective countries rather than having industries and production plants over there. But this did not bring any substantial profit to them.
The time has come when US universities should look at this problem from a global perspectivand start globalization of their educational programs with engineering taking lead as they are the most in demand by the multinational companies. This brings the concept of International Engineering Educational Program (IEEP) in forefront. It means the US universities will have to enter the international higher education market of these new economic growth countries i.e. train graduate students in their home countries for a substantial part and train in USA for remainder of the program. It may require some basic changes in the curriculum and number of credits to be completed in residence. In the beginning it is safer and economically viable to team up with some reputed institutions of higher learning in these countries. However the US universities will award the degrees/diploma as this still carries prestige and preference in the job market especially by the multinational companies. It is just like selling the Toyota or Honda cars manufactured or assembled in USA but still with Japanese name on it. After being successful in this process for a while, the full-fledged institutions may be established as a long-term goal. This is exactly the way most of the multinational companies have done. Recently some British high school systems have entered the school system market in India. It is to be noted that this concept is quite different from the present exchange programs or limited collaborative programs several US universities have already developed. It is very similar to starting an international company in a foreign land with locally available raw material, rules and regulations but with foreign expertise and management. All the developing countries would like this new concept as it will stop the brain drain to a greater extent and will directly help in their economy. From humanitarian point of view, the engineering graduates will not have to suffer from cultural shock and isolation from their families for an extended period as they have to go through today as well as the total cost will go down. I am sure even the United Nations (UN) may support this new concept and may provide some kind of financial support for implementation of the program as it can provide solution to the brain-drain problem up to some extent.
For developing a successful International Engineering Education Program (IEEP) it is necessary to have close contacts with academic institutions, academicians related government agencies, research laboratories and industries in the respective countries. A suitable mechanism of faculty exchange and student exchange has to be developed. This will provide better understanding of each other’s culture, educational and industrial system. This will also help in making necessary changes or accommodations in the curriculum at home. At the same time the existing process of complete graduate engineering degree in USA and research exchange programs involving engineering faculty and students are to be continued. It means we are not developing this new system by eliminating the existing international student programs in any university but for more efficient and economical system all should come under one umbrella. Some people may ask questions about developing separate international engineering education program while there is already an international program in any university which includes engineering also. The main reasons for this separation which is overdue, are: (i) basic concept of engineering all over the world is similar i.e. engineering is already international in nature like sciences and business (ii) it has maximum demand and will remain like this for ever as technology/engineering have been playing the most important role in economic development of any country and modern civilization of the world (iii) it does not get required attention and funding under any university’s existing international program and (iv) after initial investment for few years, such program not only will become self funded but will start bringing in money to the university through company donations and support, student fees and support from agencies like UNESCO, NSF, NRC and other professional as well as government organizations. At the same time all the alumni of any engineering school spread all over the world can be identified and brought together to support the program.
Next important issue is the structure of the program, which will vary from one continent to another and may be from one country to another depending on several factors. Countries like India, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and several other developing countries have been main source of our graduate engineering programs for so many years now. We will continue to keep those sources intact and in fact may add East European and South/Central American countries to this list as students from those countries are very keen to come to US universities for higher education. The main problems they are facing today are economic and English language, which is going to change in the near future. So these region will become a huge market to tap. At the same time we should keep an eye on African nations too. The whole structure of this international program can be divided into four categories.
Under this category the US University will sign an agreement with the universities/institutions in other countries to recruit and teach students under our program along with their own students for at least two semesters. It means the students are selected right in the beginning. They may be required to pay higher fee compared to home institution students and will have to go through TOEFL and GRE tests prior to are finally admitted into our program. The higher fee is necessary to compensate the home institution for their services and to defray our expenditures. These students are supposed to complete at least 18 credits (exact number may be decided by each university) before coming to US University where they will complete rest of the credits and thesis/dissertation work. This program is very suitable for India, China, Japan and other Asian as well as East European and South American countries. In fact many universities in these countries have shown keen interest in this new concept. The US University will have to make necessary changes in the curriculum and its credit policy. At the same time full financial support (TA/RA positions) for these students has to be arranged through the US University during the period they are in USA. This is an added incentive to attract students under this program besides the degree being awarded by the US University. Under this program the internship for the students has to be arranged with foreign companies in their home countries or in USA which will enhance their hiring chances by these companies.
This program has been in place in most of the universities all over the US since early sixties or even prior to that. As mentioned before, this type of program is already in trouble or at least is slowing down, as the students from many emerging economy countries prefer to stay in their home countries due to improved economic conditions and prosperity. In order to keep it alive or at least keep it complementary to the proposed new program it is necessary to make some concrete efforts in this direction like aggressive recruitment, advertisement, internships and full financial support in the form of TA/RA positions. In some cases if the students are academically very strong but have some difficulties in TOEFL and GRE, they may be admitted into the program conditionally. They should be allowed to fulfill TOEFL and GRE requirements within certain stipulated time period after coming to US University. It has been observed over the years that the academically good students generally fair very well in these tests after living in the US environment for a while. However one has to be very careful in this type of recruitment to maintain the quality otherwise it may bring bad name to the university. Besides the traditional countries like India, China, Singapore, Malaysia etc. we should also look for newer students market for this program in Japan, East European, South/Central American and African countries.
Under this category, the students will come to US University only for a short period to conduct research as an independent study or thesis/dissertation work. These students will be admitted as special graduate students or visiting research scholars and do not require taking TOEFL or GRE requirements. They can be funded through their home institutions/governments or ongoing research projects. This work will form part of their graduate degree from home institution. Several universities in Japan and Europe are quite interested to participate in such a program. Once successful with few schools it can be expanded to other schools or countries. The degrees will be awarded by their home institutions.
In order to develop a strong IEEP it is necessary to have exchange of students and faculty with foreign countries especially with the universities, which are going to participate in the international program. This will provide an opportunity to our students and faculty to know about other cultures, traditions and system of engineering education as well as their engineering and industrial problems. This will also help in modifying the engineering programs of participating universities to be compatible to our programs and also suitable for their countries. Most of the foreign governments provide financial support for such exchange programs as they would like their faculty, scientists and graduate students to get exposed to advanced research and technology being developed in the US universities and research laboratories. At the same time some faculty/students can be supported through ongoing research projects in the US universities. However the exchange has to be on equality basis depending on the conditions of each country.
We should continue the full degree in USA program with India, China, Singapore, and Indonesia and add other developing countries of South America and Africa as well as East European countries to this list. As already suggested more rigorous efforts in recruitment are necessary. This program will certainly get a boost once the proposed partial program in US is established in some of these countries. Our starting focus for new program should be India, Japan and China. Some schools in these countries have already shown keen interest in such a program. We have to enter into an agreement with government supported reputed universities/ institutions like Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University in India and Kyushu University and Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan as well as some reputed private schools. The main advantage of private schools is less bureaucracy and rapid implementation of the program. The private schools like Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani in India and the Fukuoka University and Nihon University in Japan have been identified as the top most private schools to start such a program. In China, the program may be started with Beijing Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University. The possibility of thesis/dissertation research program in these countries has to be further investigated provided it is based on equality and living standards of each country. Since every country has different policies and approaches to these types of issues, we have to be very careful in getting into an agreement and make sure it is justifiable and beneficial to both the parties. Similarly nationalities and cultural differences also play very important role in these activities.
Any interaction with European countries has to be placed into two separate category (i) East Europe and (ii) West Europe as the conditions and systems are entirely different. West European countries are quite sensitive to any interaction with US universities. The safest interaction with them is the exchange program and thesis/dissertation research program. The Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieurs de Brest (ENIB), France; University of Malaga and Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain; University of Roma, Italy; University of Wales, UK; and Hochschule fü r Technik und Wirstschaft, Mittweida and Technical University of Berlin, Germany have shown interest for this type of collaboration. Regarding East European countries, since they have just come out of the old socialistic system, are very keen to have interaction with US universities. It seems all the four types of interaction should be investigated with these countries. The Kiev Polytechnic University, Ukraine and Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic may take leading role in these activities.
It is to be noted that the US government and European Community have already established a cooperative program in higher education and vocational education and training. The objectives of this program are to be achieved by promoting an innovative range of student-centered, higher education and training cooperative activities between different regions of the European Community and the US through the encouragement of joint projects. Each project supported under this program requires the group of three universities located in two or three states of the US and three universities from two to three countries of European Community. This is very new program and seems to be working very well.
M.S. Program: (Proposed) - Base Degree: BS
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Total Credits: 30, |
Home University: 15 + 3 (internship) = 18; Period: 1 year |
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USA University: 3 + 6 (thesis) +3 (internship) = 12; Period: 1 year |
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Total Time: 2 years |
Ph.D Program (Proposed)
A. Base Degree: MS
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Total Credits: 48, |
Home University: 15 +3 (internship) = 18; Period: 1 year |
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USA University: 3 +24 (dissertation) +3 (internship) = 30 |
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Period: 2 to 3 years |
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Total Time: 3 to 4 years |
B. Base Degree: BS
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Total Credits: 72, |
Home University: 30 + 3 (internship) = 33; Period: 2 years |
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USA University : 12 + 24 (dissertation) +3 (internship) = 39 |
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Period: 2 to 4 years |
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Total Time: 4 to 6 years |
All the credit and other requirements for this program already exist in the catalogs of most of the US universities. However in order to make it more compatible with the new proposed program, the internship requirement should be added if it does not exist in the catalog.
The time period for this research activity can be from one semester to two years depending on the degree and the requirement imposed by the foreign university. This has to be discussed and decided for each collaborating university separately.
It is proposed that the students and faculty who participate in this program should spend at least one semester in the collaborating foreign university and vice versa. However, the cost of living and standard of living in every country are very important considerations for developing this program. The work completed by the students in a foreign university will count for the degree requirement of the US university. Total number of credits earned are to be decided by the advisory board of the IEEP of the US university before a student proceeds on the exchange program. Similarly his/her university will decide the foreign student’s credits even though the student may register in certain number of credits for our administrative purpose.
It is important that we start with one or two areas and few countries at a time. For proposed partial program in USA, we should start negotiations with few schools in India, China and Japan especially the universities, which have shown keen interest for the proposed program. Similarly for thesis/dissertation research we can select few schools in Europe which re very much interested in this new type of exchange program. Next step is to establish contacts with the selected foreign universities and preliminary discussions. Once the programs under these two categories have been established it is very easy to think and work for the programs under other two categories and expansion. This will certainly require heavy international travel and correspondence at the highest level of university administration and government agencies in the respective countries. Thus the whole program can be divided into following three phases:
Phase I (6 months): Plan administrative set-up, appointment of necessary personnel, formation of advisory board, program planning, first three year budget plan, identifying funding sources etc.
Phase II (12.months): Identification of programs, countries, universities/ institutions, establishing contacts, negotiating / finalizing agreements and starting programs, establishing industrial contacts in respective countries, development of internship program/procedures.
Phase III (18 months): Monitoring progress after every six months, adding other programs and countries to the list, program review, risk assessment and future expansion.
As already mentioned the industrial support for the program in the respective countries is very important for its success. We should seek industry help not only for internship and recruitment but also in other forms like scholarships, fellowships, assistantships, part time teaching positions, exchange of faculty/students etc. We should make these industries as active partners of the program, which requires thorough explanation of the programs, objectives and benefits to them. Some seminars to these industries should be arranged right from the beginning of the program. These days many US companies like HP, Boeing, IBM, Microsoft, Ford, GM etc. are doing business in several foreign countries including India, China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and many European countries where we plan to start these programs. It is expected that once these industries understand the basic concept of the program and benefits to them, they would certainly come forward to support the program. Another important area where we should seek support for the program is UNESCO, World Bank, National Academies of Sciences and other scientific agencies, ministry of education in the respective countries as well as NSF, NRC, and other related organizations in USA. The main incentive for these organizations in supporting this program is its aim at minimizing the brain drain, which has become a serious problem for most of the developing countries, while establishing a true scientific exchange program.
Some funding can also be obtained by submitting cooperative activity proposals to the EC/USA Higher Education Cooperative Programs. This program is administered on behalf of European Community by the European Commission Directorate-General for Education, Training and Youth and on behalf of the US Government by the Funds for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education (FIPSE) of the US Department of Education. The US consortium of universities can get up to $130,000 and the European group up to $100,000 for a three year project besides $3000 per student for student mobility or travel.
The basic concept of globalization of engineering education has been presented. The program and activities may be decided and modified according to each university and country. These are simple guidelines and may require further investigation before preparing a final proposal for these joint activities.