Will our graduates be global players?

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2003 by Lohmann, Jack R

Globalization is a fact of life, whether in the management of business enterprises, the conduct of government affairs, or the exploration of the frontiers of science and technology. While many aspects of society and commerce have become internationalized, the same cannot be said for U.S. higher education. For example, in 2000-2001, it appears that only 10.7% of U.S. college graduates participated in a study abroad experience, a total of 154,168 students [12]. Even more concerning is the distribution of the participants by their field of study. Humanities, social sciences, fine or applied arts, and foreign languages accounted for 51.5% of the participation (79,527 graduates), whereas business and management represented 18.1% (27,938 graduates), physical sciences, computer sciences, and mathematics represented 9.1% (14,106 graduates), and engineering represented 2.7% (4,136 graduates). Those 4,136 engineering students represented only 4% of all U.S. engineering graduates!

The lack of participation in international experiences by U.S. engineering students is particularly troubling in view of the increasingly technologically complex and highly interdependent world in which we live. Interestingly, the lack of participation is not due to lack of interest on the part of the students or of public support. One study determined that as many as one-half of all high school seniors hoped to study abroad in college; another study revealed that sixty percent of undergraduates thought all students should have a study abroad experience during their college years; and a third study found that seventy-nine percent of the American public supports collegiate study abroad experiences [2]. Further, there is no lack of debate and interest among engineering educators about global engineering, as can be observed in the recent reports and conferences [1, 10], the current worldwide accreditation reforms [7, 8], and the emerging agreements to enhance the international mobility of engineers [9, 11]. So, why is there a lack of participation in international experiences by U.S. engineering students? A number of obstacles are often raised, but three appear to be mentioned consistently.

One obstacle is the need for foreign language proficiency. Many U.S. students study foreign languages as part of their secondary education, and they often continue their studies in college; however, most really do not become proficient. Basically, foreign language study is not viewed as worthwhile due to the perception of its limited utility later in life, and especially since English is perceived as the universal language of commerce and technology. That much of the rest of the world speaks English, however, is to their advantage, not ours. They have access to our society in a way that we deny ourselves to theirs.

Another obstacle is the need to make apparent the value of international experiences for professional practice. Despite the support for international experiences advocated by corporate CEOs, most recruiters do not overtly convey the value of an international experience to career mobility and advancement. Students are astute; they hear the silence loud and clear. Further, even though some recruiters do advocate relevant international experience, government regulations on foreign workers often make internships and similar employment opportunities difficult to arrange for students.

Finally, there is a need to bring international experiences into the academic mainstream. U.S. engineering students often come from socio-economic backgrounds that make it difficult to afford the extra costs of foreign experiences or they consider such experiences as diversions and not relevant to their career goals. Students also often find making the necessary academic arrangements too discouraging because of an inflexible engineering curriculum, the difficulty of obtaining academic credit for work performed elsewhere, or the lack of convenient entry points into foreign academic programs.

Interestingly, the first two obstacles appear to be diminishing rapidly. Student interest in foreign language study is much stronger than many engineering educators may realize (and its grown since September 11^sup th^) [2, 6], and the needs by businesses and governments for employees with an international expertise are growing significantly [4, 5]. The principal obstacle, therefore, appears to be bringing international experiences into the academic mainstream, and that one is largely within our control. Simply put, we need to build better pathways for engineering students to pursue international academic and professional experiences as part of their engineering education. While many of our institutions offer international programs, most are aimed at humanities and social science subjects and students. What we need are programs focused on technical subjects and engineering students.

There seems little doubt that preparing engineering students for global lives and careers is the next major wave of change that will wash over engineering education programs worldwide. This is relatively easy to foresee, but it will be difficult to address. What do we mean when we say that engineers should have "a global understanding," "an international perspective," and "a multi-cultural appreciation." There is no consensus on what constitutes a "globally prepared" engineer. It is certainly an area in need of much more research in engineering education. However, three elements seem to be common among programs designed to seriously prepare students for global careers: foreign language proficiency and cultural acclimation, discipline-related study abroad, and professional experience in an international setting [3]. Clearly, every engineering graduate need not become fluent in German, spend a year at the Technical University of Munich, and complete two internships at Siemens, and, of course, do so within four years! Nonetheless, engineering programs have ample latitude to provide a broad array of meaningful opportunities incorporating some or all of these elements, ranging from a multi-national design course to develop a student's "appreciation" of a global perspective (even if he or she never leaves the campus), to a semester of engineering-related study and/or work abroad (even if done in English), to substantial academic programs in which students are fully immersed in extended study and work abroad requiring fluency in a foreign language. Obviously, the more students are immersed in international experiences, the better their global preparation will be.