Work in Progress - Increasing Transfer Student Enrollment, Retention and Graduation through the Strengthening Transitions into Engineering Programs

Authors

Stephanie G. Adams, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lance C. Pérez, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
John J. Ballard, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

2007

Comments

Published in FIE '07. 37th Annual Frontiers In Education Conference - Global Engineering: Knowledge Without Borders, Opportunities Without Passports, 2007. DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2007.4418113 Copyright 2007 IEEE. Used by permission.

Abstract

Large populations of students are matriculating to community colleges (CC). However, transferring from a CC to 4-year undergraduate engineering degree program is often quite difficult. There are few, if any, engineering courses offered at the CCs. In addition, long prerequisite chains reduce many transfer students to Freshman or Sophomore status, even though they have had two years of post-secondary education. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Strengthening Transitions into Engineering Programs (STEP) is a program designed to facilitate the transfer of CC students to undergraduate baccalaureate engineering degree programs. The program consists of four engineering courses taught at the CCs with support from UNL and several complementary student support programs. This paper discusses the specific courses and strategies being implemented and the progress to date of the UNL STEP program.