Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers (2005) / Chapter Skim
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3 Recruitment and Retention
3 Recruitment and Retention
Pages 30-45
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From page 30... ...
descriptions of efforts by two-year institutions to attract and retain students in engineering science programs and prepare them to transfer to fouryear engineering programs and (2) descriptions of efforts by four-year institutions to recruit students from community colleges and retain them in their engineering degree programs.
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From page 31... ...
Participants in the workshop also pointed out other challenges: · inadequate or nonexistent guidance counseling in high schools · a lack of advertising by community colleges and state agencies · a failure of community colleges and four-year educational institutions to reach out to local high schools and to solicit the help of alumnae who could serve as role models and mentors · the lack of data tracking outcomes for transfer students, which could demonstrate the viability of the community college pathway to engineering degrees · a lack of recognition, guidance, assistance, and cooperation from four-year educational institution To significantly increase the number of students who embark on the community college pathway to engineering, four-year schools will have to use their brand images to promote community college programs, perhaps by developing joint admission and recruitment programs with twoyear schools. For example, a four-year school's name could be listed next to the engineering science major on the community college application, and promotional materials and high school outreach programs developed jointly should prominently feature the names of both schools.
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From page 32... ...
Four-year institutional partners also benefit by being able to draw on an expanded, and in some cases more diverse, recruitment pool that includes talented community college students. Moreover, four-year institutions will have better retention rates when they work together with community colleges to improve the preparation of students to pursue upper-division engineering courses.
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From page 33... ...
population and the number of college students who are first-generation Americans means that transfer students have increasingly diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, often quite different from those of other students and faculty members. Engineering faculty members and administrators must recognize these differences and take into account that they may affect not only the social integration of transfer students, but also their academic performance.
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From page 34... ...
, the lack of financial assistance for community college students is cited as a major barrier to their retention, both before and after they transfer to four-year engineering programs. While most states increased their spending on community colleges in the 20032004 academic year, tuitions also increased -- on average by 7 percent nationwide (Katsinas et al., 2004)
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. A 2004 study found that financially needy first-generation college students are much more likely to complete an associate degree if they attend an institution with reliable class schedules and an easy-to-navigate bureaucracy (Person & Rosenbaum, 2004)
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From page 36... ...
Retention strategies by a number of community colleges alone and in collaboration with four-year partners include scholarships, internships, faculty advisors, mentoring by peers, study centers and mentoring programs, mathematics laboratories, weekend and evening hours for laboratories and study centers, engineering clubs, collaborations with local industry, and joint events with four-year partners to highlight the project and design elements of engineering. EXEMPLARY APPROACHES TO RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION Recruitment strategies by a number of community colleges represented at the workshop had many common features: · visits to local high schools · direct mailings to principles, counselors, and students who were not admitted to four-year institutions and others, whose names may be supplied by four-year institutions in the area · advertisements via posters, brochures, and websites · participation in joint recruitment events with four-year partners · providing speakers for physics and other classes at local high schools · inviting college representatives to speak at local career days · sponsoring senior preview days in the spring · inviting community college students to robotics competitions and other project or design events held on university campuses
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From page 37... ...
Direct mailings are then sent to these students to inform them of the possibility of beginning their engineering degree work at Lenoir and transferring to NCSU as juniors. Lenoir and NCSU have just begun a program to work with K12 students in the region to stimulate interest in engineering.
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-- is described below. West Kentucky Community and Technical College and University of Kentucky These two educational institutions have established a partnership for recruitment that includes collaborative scholarship programs and attendance at college nights at local high schools.
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provides mathematics, engineering, and science enrichment to community college students to enable them to excel academically and ultimately transfer to four-year institutions as mathematics-based majors. The program establishes academic community centers on campuses where most students are commuters and peer support and information sharing are scarce.
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Jones County Junior College A faculty member at Jones County Junior College (the only college represented at the workshop that continues to describe itself as a junior college) describes the Student Engineering Society as the best feature of the engineering science program and an important retention tool.
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From page 41... ...
In their final semester, students work in teams to design and build a working prototype to compete in the annual SUNY Engineering Science Association Competition. The top three MCC teams receive funding from the engineering club to travel to and compete at the SUNY Two Year Engineering Science Association (TYESA)
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From page 42... ...
program is a technology degree program, rather than an engineering science program, that has partnerships with four-year institutions with engineering degree programs. Although the focus of this report is on the latter, some sophomore and junior students from engineering technology degree programs at community colleges and technical schools do enter four-year engineering programs.
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From page 43... ...
To be successful, community colleges and four-year educational institutions will have to achieve their recruitment and retention goals for nontraditional students. Representatives of fouryear engineering programs at the workshop reported that retention rates for transfer students was generally as high, or higher, than the rate for four-year-only students.
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From page 44... ...
Conclusion 3-2 The lack of financial assistance from institutional, state, and federal sources is an enormous barrier to the recruitment and retention of engineering science students in community colleges. Additional financial assistance is also needed for students who transfer to four-year engineering programs to ensure that they can afford to stay in school until graduation.
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From page 45... ...
A series of seminars about engineering and technology/career opportunities, supported by the faculty and graduate students of the four-year partner and engineers in industry from the surrounding community, would help administrators gauge the interest of local students in engineering and enable them to plan and advocate for more engineering science faculty, if appropriate. Community colleges might also consider recruiting industry experts to teach on their campuses.
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