The Dismantling of the Engineering Education Pipeline

Abstract

Community colleges play a critical role in helping to produce engineers that are urgently needed in order to maintain America's global technological competitiveness. Community colleges serve as an important pipeline for large numbers of ethnically diverse transfer students who pursue engineering degrees in four-year institutions. A few states, such as Maryland and California, have launched broad efforts to make the transfer process easier for community college students in general. Recent developments, however, have threatened the viability of engineering programs in California Community Colleges, endangering this very important pipeline in the engineering educational system. The increasing divergence of the lower-division requirements among different four-year institutions and among the different fields of engineering has led to the erosion of what used to be a standard set of core engineering courses (graphics, statics, properties of materials, circuits, programming) that were required by all engineering programs. This has in turn made it more difficult for community college students to identify and access required lowerdivision engineering courses, thereby creating barriers to transfer, increasing costs and time to transfer, and discouraging students from pursuing engineering degrees. Additionally, the recent budget crisis has forced many community colleges to cancel low-enrollment classes and highcost programs including those in engineering. This paper addresses the factors that have led to the gradual erosion of the lower-division core curriculum and the effects that these curriculum changes have had on community college engineering programs. It also explores the implications on the future of the engineering education system, and discusses ongoing attempts to address this growing educational crisis.

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