Industry and Engineering Education in the USA

Abstract

Many changes have occurred in US engineering education that have affected the critical relationship between higher education and industry. Chief among these influences are rapid change and growth in technology; reduction in participation in higher education budgets in the 50 state universities to markedly reduced percentages; increase in student tuition and costs to more than twice the inflation rate of the Consumer Price Index; the global marketplace as it affects industry; and the fact that the federal government supplies by far the biggest percentage of higher education research grants, with industry supplying the least (thus, the government has considerable influence on university research). The author discusses what changes should be made to improve this critical relationship, particularly as it concerns engineering education.