A Review of the Literature on Transfer Student Pathways to Engineering Degrees

Abstract

In 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science Technology (PCAST) documented the need to prepare more than 1 million additional STEM professionals in the U.S. workforce over the next decade, primarily through efforts focused on increasing retention rates and diversifying pathways. One way to accomplish this is by creating and enhancing pathways into engineering for the community college sector. Responding to a call for action from President Obama and his Council of Advisors on Science Technology, the author explores the current state of literature on engineering transfer students. In this paper, the author identifies gaps in the literature and provides implications for future research on diversifying pathways to engineering degrees for transfer students. Introduction Engineering is essential to our health, happiness, and safety. As a result, quality of life in the United States is largely dependent on the fruitful efforts of a skilled science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce which includes engineers that design, build, and create innovative products that affect us daily and help shape the future. President Obama, in his State of the Union speech for three consecutive years, directly addressed the importance of STEM education to our country and its relationship to the health of the U.S. economy. The current administration has emphasized the need to increase STEM talent in the U.S. workforce and demonstrated a strong commitment to improve STEM education with a $3.1 billion investment in 2013. Despite past national efforts, to expand the domestic STEM workforce, enrollment and degrees awarded in engineering have stayed relatively constant in the United States for more than two decades. According to the National Science Board, student enrollment in higher education increased by 30 percent between 1997 and 2007 while enrollment in engineering degree programs remained flat. During the same time span, China increased production of STEM graduates by more than 200 percent while the U.S. reaped a mere 20 percent gain. In the face of stagnating numbers for engineering enrollment and degree production, the United States has experienced a decline in the percent of engineering bachelor degrees awarded to males and white (non-Hispanic) students, approximately 15 percent and 20 percent respectively. This trend may not be a surprise given the recent increase in nationwide outreach programs designed to introduce women and racial/ethnic minorities to opportunities in STEM fields. However, the distribution of engineering degrees awarded across racial/ethnic groups is not reflective of the current demographic shift in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 14 out of 50 states in our country have already shifted to majority minority populations with New Mexico, California, and Texas at the top of the list. Since 2005, Hispanics have exceeded more than 20 percent of students enrolled in the K-12 education system, yet they earned only 10 percent of the engineering degrees awarded in 2007. Racial/ethnic minorities continue to be an untapped pool of prospective STEM talent in United