America's newest export

ASEE Prism, Mar 2003 by Sanoff, Alvin P

U.S. engineering schools are gradually venturing into the global marketplace-- setting up shop in countries such as France, Greece, Singapore, and even China.

The globalization of business is taken for granted in 21st-century America. U.S. firms have built plants and established offices throughout the world, and foreign enterprises have set up major facilities in this country. Autos, software, cellphones, soft drinks-the list of industries that have become global goes on and on.

But while business has become internationalized, the same cannot be said of education. Although foreign students flock to study in this country, American universities, for the most part, have been hesitant to move in the opposite direction and offer education outside the nation's borders. The obstacles-- cultural, financial, logistical-have seemed daunting. Moreover, innovation does not come easily to institutions of higher education, which are reluctant to depart from traditional ways of doing business.

Attitudes, however, have gradually been shifting as schools conclude that there are opportunities abroad and that the obstacles are not insurmountable. Engineering schools are among those gradually venturing into the global marketplace, although only a small number of schools have taken the plunge.

Three institutions that have been among the most visibly and engaged in foreign ventures: The Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. All have established master's degree programs abroad. Each has taken a distinctive approach to exporting its educational wares and developed relationships in different places.

Parlez-vous Engineering?

The Georgia Tech program is the granddaddy of the three. Started in 1990 as a pilot project in the Lorraine region of France, it initially enrolled just five students in a master's program in electrical engineering. Thirteen years later, Georgia Tech Lorraine has burgeoned to 240 students enrolled in two master's programs -electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering. The satellite school now has its own building in the city of Metz that includes housing for 100 students, and there is talk of expansion.

Hans B. Puttgen, president of Georgia Tech Lorraine and vice chair of electrical and computer engineering at Georgia Tech, says that "a growing number of students realize that an engineering career is global and that they need to be properly prepared. As a result, we have had students who were admitted to MIT and Stanford who chose to go to Georgia Tech Lorraine."

About 60 percent of the students at Lorraine are French, 15 percent come from other foreign countries, and 25 percent are from the United States. To be admitted, students have to go through the same process as those applying to the main campus in Atlanta. The cost and length of the program are the same as on Tech's main campus, and students emerge with a Georgia Tech degree.

The Lorraine students are taught by members of the Georgia Tech faculty. Three faculty members reside in France full time, and a rotating band of four to five others spend a semester at Lorraine. "We have taken a lot of steps to make the transition very easy and convenient for faculty," says Puttgen, who commutes between Atlanta and Lorraine. "We provide completely equipped housing, cars, and travel budgets. Since we started, 55 different faculty members have gone over there. A number have gone back several times." Adds Roger Webb, chair of Georgia Tech's electrical and computer engineering program: "The faculty like to teach there. It offers a change of pace and a different environment."

Students at Georgia Tech Lorraine have the option of enrolling in a double degree program, so that at the end of their studies they emerge with degrees from both Georgia Tech and one of a half dozen French engineering institutions with which Tech has developed partnerships. All French students choose the double degree program and some American students do as well, according to Puttgen. The double degree program takes a minimum of 18 months to complete. U.S. students spend one semester at a French institution. Conversely, French students head across the Atlantic to study for a semester on Georgia Tech's Atlanta campus.

A corporate internship is a component of the dual degree program. Students have interned at such global corporations as Nortel, Boeing, Schlumberger, and Siemens. Puttgen is seeking industrial partners to fund two-person teams of students-one French or from another foreign country and one American-who would work on projects together and do their internships at the company that is funding them. "Companies are very interested because they would have first crack at hiring these youngsters who would have demonstrated their ability to move from one country to another and work in multicultural environments," says Puttgen.

Georgia Tech also operates a lab at Lorraine in partnership with CNRS, the French national research organization. The lab is populated by Georgia Tech and French researchers as well as by 15 doctoral students. Some of the would-be Ph.D.s are pursuing Georgia Tech degrees, others are enrolled at French universities, and a few are in a joint program.