Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers

Community colleges play an important role in starting students on the road to engineering careers, but students often face obstacles in transferring to four-year educational institutions to continue their education. Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers, a new book from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council, discusses ways to improve the transfer experience for students at community colleges and offers strategies to enhance partnerships between those colleges and four-year engineering schools to help students transfer more smoothly. In particular, the book focuses on challenges and opportunities for improving transfer between community colleges and four-year educational institutions, recruitment and retention of students interested in engineering, the curricular content and quality of engineering programs, opportunities for community colleges to increase diversity in the engineering workforce, and a review of sources of information on community college and transfer students. It includes a number of current policies, practices, and programs involving community collegefour-year institution partnerships. Table of Contents Front Matter Summary 1 Overview 2 Successful Transfer of Students to Four-Year Institutions 3 Recruitment and Retention 4 Curricular Content, Quality, and Standards 5 Diversity in the Engineering Workforce 6 Data Collection 7 Report Summary Appendix A Committee Members Biographical Information Appendix B Committee Meeting Agenda, April 1, 2004 Appendix C Workshop on Key Issues and Exemplary Practices Meeting Agenda, July 78, 2004 Appendix D Workshop Participants Appendix E Transfer Data Appendix F References